Obesity is associated with aortic enlargement and increased stiffness: an echocardiographic study

Abstract

Aortic stiffness is higher in young obese patients and similar to older subjects without obesity. Both SD and DD are increasing with age, but subjects within similar age group have larger SD and DD suggesting early vascular remodelling in obesity.

Arterial stiffness is associated with adipokine dysregulation in non-hypertensive obese mice

“…Obesity is associated with an increase in aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) and/or intrinsic stiffness (assessed by the stress-strain relationship) in human subcutaneous small resistance arteries 6,[11][12][13] , as well as in aorta of high-fat/high-sucrose SD 7 or in genetic models of obesity, i.e. ob/ob mice 14 and insulinresistant Zucker fa/fa rats 8 .…”

“…According to this, several studies have shown a link between arterial stiffness and abnormal increase in the collagen/elastin ratio in hypertension 18,[24][25][26] . However, very few studies 11,12 have been performed in the context of obesity, and the role of obesity per se in the development of mechanical abnormalities remains to be elucidated.…”

Adult Atopic Dermatitis is Associated with Increased Aortic Stiffness

“…In general cardiology practice, stiffness is considered a pivotal marker of aortic elastic properties that independently predicts cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality [5]; thus the determination of aortic stiffness among atopic patients (as was done for psoriatic persons) seemed to be a logical approach to elucidate the cardiovascular interference of AD. We measured aortic stiffness parameters (aortic stiffness index, strain and distensibility) in young adult probands with AD [mean age 30.5 ± 10.8 years, 11 women and eight men, body mass index (BMI) 28.3 ± 3.5 kg/m 2 ] and without AD (mean age 29.3 ± 2.9 years, 11 women and eight men, BMI 29.5 ± 4.8 kg/m 2 ).…”

“…Chronic inflammation (e.g., psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease [9], rheumatoid arthritis [10], obesity [5]) has been shown to be associated with altered aortic stiffness parameters, and AD may influence aortic elasticity with this property, too.…”

Aortic elasticity alterations in special disorders

“…We have recently shown that obesity is associated with aortic enlargement and increased stiffness regardless the age of patients (44).…”