Cardiology News

Lavie CJ et al. - Although both low BF and low body mass index (BMI) are independent predictors of mortality in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), only patients with combined low body fat (BF)/low BMI appear to be at particularly high risk of mortality during follow-up. Studies are needed to determine optimal body composition in the secondary prevention of CHD.

Methods

• The authors studied 581 patients with CHD between January 1, 2000, and July 31, 2005, who were divided into low (<25) and high BMI (≥25), as well as low (≤25% men and ≤35% women) and high BF (>25% in men and >35% in women).
• Four groups were analyzed by total mortality during the 3-year follow-up by National Death Index: low BF/low BMI (n=119), high BF/low BMI (n=26), low BF/high BMI (n=125), and high BF/high BMI (n=311).

Results

• During the 3-year follow-up, mortality was highest in the low BF/low BMI group (11%), which was significantly (P<.001) higher than that in the other 3 groups (3.9%, 3.2%, and 2.6%, respectively); using the high BF/high BMI group as a reference, the low BF/low BMI group had a 4.24-fold increase in mortality (confidence interval [CI], 1.76-10.23; P=.001).
• In multivariate logistic regression for mortality, when entered individually, both high BMI (odds ratio [OR], 0.79; CI, 0.69-0.90) and read more

Read all the latest Cardiology articles at MDLinx.com