The Relationship Between Measures Of Obesity And Echocardiographic Determinants Of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy In Nigerian Adults

Abstract

Background Obesity is becoming a global epidemic and the prevalence is increasing not only in the developed countries but also in developing countries like Nigeria. The main adverse consequences are cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and several cancers. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a cardiovascular consequence of obesity and it is an independent risk factor for stroke, myocardial infarction and sudden death. It is therefore necessary to know to what extent obesity is responsible for the development of LVH and what measures of obesity are implicated. Method: A total number of two hundred and thirty (230) subjects were recruited for the study. One hundred and fifty (150) were obese while eighty (80) were non obese controls. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) were measured and calculated as the case may be. Based on their BMI, the subjects were classified as obese and non obese. Blood pressure measurements on at least two occasions and fasting plasma glucose estimates were done to identify normotensive, normoglycemic subjects who were included in the study. Echocardiography was done on all subjects after physical examination. The Left Ventricular Mass was calculated using Devereux modified ASE cube formula and this was indexed to height 2 and to body surface area.Results BMI and WC were strongly correlated with all echocardiographic parameters with BMI having the strongest correlation with LVM/H 2 (r=0.708, p<0.001) in males and (r=0.799,p<0.001) in females. This was followed by WC (r=0.678, p<0.001) in males and (r=0.646,p<0.001) in females. WHR was weakly correlated with LVM/H 2 (r=0.213, P=0.040) in males and (r=0.218, p=0.011) in females.Conclusion and RecommendationBody mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) had stronger correlations with echocardiographic determinants of left ventricular hypertrophy compared to Waist hip ratio (WHR) in this study. BMI and WC should therefore be the preferred measures of obesity for the assessment of the impact of obesity on left ventricular mass and hypertrophy.