Relationship between adipose tissue distribution and arterial stiffness in HFpEF

Objectives: Heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) in patients is often complicated by abdomi-nal obesity and arteriosclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between adipose tis-sue distribution and arterial stiffness in patients with HFpEF. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study involving 93 patients with HFpEF. Several anthropo-metric measurements were measured, including height, weight, waist circumference, body fat mass, percent body fat, body fat rate, and visceral fat area (VFA). We calculated body mass index. Arterial stiffness was assessed by measurement of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). The association between VFA and baPWV was investigated by linear regression analysis. Results: In univariate analysis, VFA showed strong relations with bilateral baPWV in Spearman correlation analysis (P = 0.003 and P = 0.002, respectively). After adjusting for VFA, age, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate, VFA and age were significantly and positively associated with bilateral baPWV (P = 0.024 and P = 0.032, respectively). After adjusting for VFA, age, left ventricular posterior wall, and inter -ventricular septal thickness, VFA and age were still significantly correlated with bilateral baPWV (P = 0.028 and P = 0.008, respectively). Conclusions: In patients with HFpEF, adipose tissue distribution was correlated with arterial stiffness. VFA was independently associated with baPWV. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Automated summary

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between adipose tissue distribution and arterial stiffness in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction. Results showed a significant correlation between VFA and baPWV, with VFA independently associated with baPWV.