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Clinical Studies and Practice

Periaortic fat and cardiovascular risk: a comparison of high-risk older adults and age-matched healthy controls

International Journal of Obesity volume 38, pages 1397–1402 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

Fat accumulation around the heart and aorta may impact cardiovascular (CV) health. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic investigation to examine potential associations of these fat depots with risk factors for CV events, which has not been done before.

Methods:

Pericardial fat, periaortic fat around the ascending aorta (AA), descending aorta (DA) and aortic arch, and abdominal subcutaneous and visceral fat were measured by MRI in older adults with (n=385, 69±8 years, 52% female) and without (n=50, 69±8 years, 58% female) risk factors for a CV event.

Results:

Individuals with CV risk factors exhibited greater fat volumes across all fat depots compared with those without risk factors. In analysis of covariance accounting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, smoking and body mass index (BMI), individuals with risk factors possessed higher epicardial, pericardial, AA, DA and abdominal visceral fat (P<0.05). When matched one-to-one on age, gender, race/ethnicity and BMI, AA and DA fat were higher in those with versus without CV risk factors (P<0.01).

Conclusions:

Older adults with a high risk for CV events have greater periaortic fat than low-risk adults, even after accounting for BMI. More studies are needed to determine whether greater periaortic fat predicts future CV events.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NIH grants K01-AG033652, R37-AG18915, R01-HL076438, and R01-HL093713 as well as the Wake Forest Claude D Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (P30-AG21332) and General Clinical Research Center (M01-RR07122).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC, USA,

    T E Brinkley, B J Nicklas, S B Kritchevsky & J Ding

  2. Department of Biostatistical Sciences, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA,

    X Leng

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Cardiology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    H L Chughtai, D W Kitzman & W G Hundley

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  1. T E Brinkley
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  2. X Leng
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Correspondence to T E Brinkley.

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Brinkley, T., Leng, X., Chughtai, H. et al. Periaortic fat and cardiovascular risk: a comparison of high-risk older adults and age-matched healthy controls. Int J Obes 38, 1397–1402 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2014.29

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