Background: This study is aimed to evaluate the relationship between sarcopenic obesity and atherosclerosis in Korean adults. Methods: We studied 7,177 participants who visited the health promotion center of a university hospital between July 2019 and December 2020. We assessed the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) to analyze the relationships between skeletal muscle mass index and visceral fat area to atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic risk factors. The participants were divided into four groups according to appendicular skeletal mass index (ASMI) and visceral fat area (VFA): normal, sarcopenia, obesity, and sarcopenic obesity. The baPWV values were compared among the male and female separately using analysis of variance. Analysis of covariance was performed to correct for age, smoking, exercise status, and disease. The relationship between body composition index and baPWV was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The mean baPWV of the four groups were significantly different for male and female (P<0.05), and the sarcopenic obesity group had a significantly higher baPWV (P<0.05). Among the male, the baPWV of the sarcopenic obesity group (1,487.2 cm/s) was highest after the adjustment for age, smoking status, exercise status, hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia (P<0.05). In female however, after the adjustment for age, the baPWV of the obesity group was 1,293.1 cm/s, higher than that of the sarcopenic obesity group (1,279.6 cm/s). The tendency was maintained after the adjustment for lifestyle and disease. Conclusion: This study showed that sarcopenic obesity, a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and increased baPWV were independently correlated. Further studies are required to evaluate the effect of increased muscle mass on the prevention of atherosclerosis or cardiovascular events. Finally, we suggest using a bioimpedance method to diagnose sarcopenic obesity in the primary care setting.

Background: Sarcopenia and decreased heart rate variability (HRV) are reportedly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. This study aimed to investigate the association between sarcopenia and HRV in patients who visited a health promotion center. Methods: We studied 19,753 participants over 50 years of age who visited the health promotion center of a university hospital between October 2017 and September 2020. Bioelectrical impedance analysis and heart rate variability tests were performed in all patients. Sarcopenia was evaluated by dividing the body weight by the appendicular skeletal muscle mass using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Sarcopenia was defined as one standard deviation below the sex-specific means of reference values obtained from adults aged 20-29 years. In addition to determining the association between sarcopenia and HRV, cardiometabolic risk factors and HRV parameters were set as risk factors and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: Sarcopenia was significantly associated with a reduced root mean square of successive normal-to-normal interval differences (RMSSD) (≤10 msec) in both sexes. Conclusion:The independent association between sarcopenia and RMSSD confirmed that sarcopenia is correlated with parasympathetic nerve reduction.