Association of Visceral Fat Index with Coronary Collateral Circulation in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Background: Coronary collateral circulation (CCC) is a network of anastomosing channels, established by heart in response to ischemia of myocardium. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and BMI are well established risk factors for development of poor CCC. Good CCC minimizes symptoms of angina, reduce the size of infarcts and prevent adverse cardiac events. The current research study was designed to find out the association of visceral adiposity and development of CCC among patients with coronary artery disease. Materials and Methods: The prospective study, conducted in Civil Hospital Karachi, comprised of 270 patients of coronary artery disease. According to the Rentrop Cohen categorization, patients were placed into two groups: the group with good collateral circulation having Rentrop grades i2-3 (n = 140) and the group with poor collateral circulation having Rentrop grades i0-1(n = 130). Rentrop score was determined by angiography. Segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analyzer was used to determine body fat mass and body muscle mass. Using Omron body fat and weight measurement systems, visceral fat index (VFI) was evaluated to determine the composition of visceral adipose tissue. SPSS was used for data analysis (Version 22). To assess the independent risk factor for poor CCC, logistic regression analysis was used. ROC curve was constructed to assess the efficacy of VFI in identifying CCC. Results: Overall, good collateral circulations were observed in 51.9% (n=140) of CAD patients, whereas poor collateral circulations were ound in 48.1% (n=130) of patients. Poor CCC was significantly associated with hypertension (OR=3, 95%CI= 0.111-8.231, p = .001) and VFI (OR=2, 95%CI= 1.451-3.567, p =.001). ROC analysis revealed a VFI > 9 to be a potential predictor of poor CCC with AUC=0.9, sensitivity of 95.00% and specificity of 86%. Conclusion: The current study concluded that greater VFI and concomitant hypertension considerably increase the likelihood of having poor CCC, therefore, visceral adiposity can be considered as a potential target for preventing poor collateral circulation in patients with established cardiac disease.