Relationship between measures of central and general adiposity with aortic stiffness in the general population
Abstract
Increased aortic stiffness may be one of the mechanisms by which obesity increases cardiovascular risk independently of traditional risk factors. While body mass index (BMI) is generally used to define excess adiposity, several studies have suggested that measures of central obesity may be better predictors of cardiovascular risk.
However, data comparing the association between several measures of central and general obesity with aortic stiffness in the general population are inconclusive. In 1031 individuals (age 53 +- 13 years, 45% men) without manifest cardiovascular disease randomly selected from population, we tested the association between parameters of central obesity (waist circumference - WC, waist-to-hip-ratio - WHR, waist-to-height ratio - WHtR) and general obesity (BMI) with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV).