Visceral adiposity index may be a surrogate marker for the assessment of the effects of obesity on arterial stiffness

• Published in: PloS one 2014-08, Vol.9 (8), p.e104365-e104365
• Main Authors: Yang, Fan, Wang, Guofeng, Wang, Zhixiao, Sun, Min, Cao, Mengdie, Zhu, Zhenxin, Fu, Qi, Mao, Jia, Shi, Yun, Yang, Tao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adipose tissue; Age Factors; Aged; Ankle; Ankle Brachial Index; Anthropometry; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood Pressure; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Body size; Cardiovascular diseases; Categories; China - epidemiology; Cholesterol; Cross-Sectional Studies; Demographics; Female; Glucose; High density lipoprotein; Humans; Insulin resistance; Lipoproteins (high density); Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Obesity; Obesity, Abdominal - complications; Obesity, Abdominal - epidemiology; Obesity, Abdominal - metabolism; Obesity, Abdominal - physiopathology; Regression analysis; Sex Factors; Stiffness; Vascular Stiffness; Waist Circumference; Wave velocity
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104365

The relationship between obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear. This study aims to describe the relationship between arterial stiffness and obesity in order to investigate the effects of obesity on CVD. We collected data from 5,158 individuals over 40 years of age from a cross-sectional study in Nanjing, China. Anthropometric, demographic, hemodynamic measurements and arterial stiffness measured through brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) were obtained. Subjects were grouped by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and visceral adiposity index (VAI), a sex-specific index based on BMI, WC, triglyceride (TG) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). The multivariate regression analysis revealed a negative but weak effect of BMI (β = -0.047, P