The relationship between various measures of obesity and arterial stiffness in morbidly obese patients

This is an analysis of cross-sectional baseline data from a controlled clinical trial addressing changes in arterial stiffness after either surgery or lifestyle intervention in a population of morbidly obese patients. High-fidelity applanation tonometry (Millar？, Sphygmocor？) was used to measure pulse wave velocity (PWV). Carotid femoral PWV is a direct measure of arterial stiffness and is considered to be the gold standard method. The Inbody 720 Body Composition Analyzer was used for bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Spearman's correlation, independent samples t-test, chi-square tests, Fisher's exact test and multiple linear regression analyses were used as statistical methods.A total of 133 patients (79 women), with a mean (SD) age of 43 (11) years were included in the study. Men had a significantly higher prevalence of obesity related comorbidities and significantly higher PWV, 9.1 (2.0) m/s vs. 8.1 (1.8) m/s, p = 0.003, than women. In the female group, PWV was positively correlated with WC, WHtR, BMI and visceral fat area. In the male group, PWV was negatively correlated with BMI. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that increasing BMI, WC, WHtR, visceral fat area and fat mass were independently associated with higher PWV in women, but not in men, after adjustment for age, hypertension and type 2 diabetes.Most measures of general and abdominal obesity were predictors of arterial stiffness in female morbidly obese patients.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00626964The prevalence of obesity is rising globally, independent of ethnicity, race and age, and is associated with increased mortality and morbidity [1,2]. Obesity rates in Scandinavia represent no exception [3-5]. Importantly, the prevalence of morbid obesity, defined as BMI ≥ 40.0 kg/m2 or BMI 35.0 -39.9 kg/m2 and an obesity-related comorbidity, is increasing at an even steeper rate [6]. Two percent of the Norwegian population[7] can be classified as morbidly obese.Several lines of evidence indi