Obesity and the risk of heart failure

Hospitalized Atrial Fibrillation After Renal Transplantation in the United States

“…We were unable to directly measure blood pressure in the present study. However, obesity was associated with an increased risk of congestive heart failure independent of blood pressure in the general population (14). Whether the association of obesity with atrial fibrillation is mediated through higher blood pressure or other effects cannot be answered by the present study.…”

Cardiovascular consequences of obesity and targets for treatment

“…There is evidence that excess body weight itself, independent of other known cardiovascular risk factors and independent of atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction impairs both diastolic and systolic function [48,49] Indeed, the risk of developing clinical heart failure is estimated to increase by 5% −7% for every 1 kg/m 2 BMI increase and is thought to contribute to 11-15% of all heart failure cases [3]. Consistent with this there are several studies using loaddependent measures demonstrating the detrimental effects of excess body weight on diastolic function as measured using traditional echocardiographic Doppler imaging [50][51][52][53].…”

“…hyperlipidemia, hypertension) [2]. Obesity also is associated with an increased risk of heart failure, with ~11 -14% of all heart failure thought to be attributable to obesity [3]. Given that excess body weight now affects more than 300 million persons worldwide, prevention and treatment of obesity should be considered one of the cornerstones for the prevention of CVD (http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/).…”

Obesity-related adjunctive systo–diastolic ventricular dysfunction in patients with hypertension: echocardiographic assessment with tissue Doppler velocity and strain imaging

“…It is an independent risk factor for the development of heart failure, 3 even after accounting for other comorbid conditions that cluster with it, such as diabetes and hypertension. 4 Moreover, obesity has been associated with heart failure, 5 left-ventricular dilation, increased leftventricular wall stress and compensatory (eccentric) left-ventricular hypertrophy. 6,7 Impairment of cardiac function has been reported to correlate with BMI and the duration of obesity, 7,8 with most studies demonstrating abnormal diastolic function, 9,10 without a consistent association with systolic dysfunction.…”

“…6 Indeed, obesity has been linked to a spectrum of more minor cardiovascular changes, ranging from hyperdynamic circulation to sub-clinical cardiac structural changes. 5,6 These early manifestations may be important because treatment to reverse this process is most likely to be effective earlier in the disease. More recently, it has been suggested that even milder degrees of obesity may negatively affect cardiac performance by means of subtle alterations in left-ventricular structure and morphology, and alterations in either sub-clinical or clinical systo-diastolic mechanics.…”