Association between coronary atherosclerosis and visceral adiposity index

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Visceral obesity is a marker of dysfunctional adipose tissue and ectopic fat infiltration. Many studies have shown that visceral fat dysfunction has a close relationship with cardiovascular disease. For a better identification of visceral adiposity dysfunction, the visceral adiposity index (VAI) is used. Coronary artery calcium score (CACS) is known to have a strong correlation with the total plaque burden therefore provides information about the severity of the coronary atherosclerosis. CACS is a strong predictor of cardiac events and it refines cardiovascular risk assessment beyond conventional risk factors. Our aim was to evaluate the association between VAI and CACS in an asymptomatic Caucasian population. METHODS AND RESULTS: Computed tomography scans of 460 participants were analyzed in a cross-sectional, voluntary screening program. A health questionnaire, physical examination and laboratory tests were also performed. Participants with a history of cardiovascular disease were excluded from the analysis. Mean VAI was 1.41 ± 0.07 in men and 2.00 ± 0.15 in women. VAI showed a positive correlation with total coronary calcium score (r = 0.242) in males but not in females. VAI was stratified into tertiles by gender. In males, third VAI tertile was independently associated with CACS>100 (OR: 3.21, p = 0.02) but not with CACS>0 after the effects of conventional risk factors were eliminated. CONCLUSION: VAI tertiles were associated with calcium scores and the highest VAI tertile was an independent predictor for the presence of CACS>100 in males but not in females.