Impact of obesity on aortic root calcification and coronary calcification using multi-detector CT

Objective: The impact of obesity measured by BMI on cardiovascular diseases remains controversial. We investigated the impact of obesity measured by BMI on the prevalence and correlation of aortic root calcification (ARC) and coronary artery calcification (CAC) in patients assessed by multi-detector CT (MDCT) angiography. Materials and methods: A total of 175 patients with intermediate pretest probability of ischemic heart disease based on age, sex, and symptoms who referred from cardiology clinic to 64-MDCT angiography examination for assessment of coronary artery disease were eligible for enrollment in this cross sectional study. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to their BMI. Non obese group (BMI < 25) composed of 73 (42%) patients (male 41 (56%), female 32 (44%) with a mean age 55 ± 8 years. Obese group (BMI ≥ 25) composed of 102 (58%) patients (male 45 (44%), female 58 (56%) with mean age 56 ± 7 years). Results: ARC was significantly associated with coronary artery calcification pattern in both non obese and obese groups (r = 461, P = 0.000) and (r = 0.358, P = 0.000) respectively. The significant association between ARC and CAC persisted even after adjustment for age, hypertension, smoking, hyperlipdemia and presence of multiple cardiac risk factor in both non obese and obese groups (95% C.I. = 0.106, 0.259, P = 0.000) and (95% C.I. = 0.108, 0.610, P = 0.006) respectively. Conclusion: ARC was significantly correlated with CAC irrespective of BMI status.