Sex Specific Cardiometabolic Risk Markers of Left Ventricular Mass in Physically Active Young Adults: The CHIEF Heart Study

Abstract

Background: Greater physical fitness may lead to greater left ventricular mass (LVM) and reduce the effect of cardiometabolic risk factors on LVM. However, the cardiometabolic biomarkers associations for LVM have not been clarified in physically active young adults. Methods: This study included 2,019 men and 253 women, aged 18-43 years, from the military in Taiwan. All participants underwent anthropometric and blood metabolic markers measurements, and completed a 3000-meter run test for assessing fitness. LVM was calculated on the basis of an echocardiography. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the sex-specific associations between cardiometabolic risk markers and LVM indexed for the body height (g/m2.7). Results: In men, age, systolic blood pressure (SBP), 3000-meter running time, serum triglycerides, serum uric acid and waist circumference (WC) were correlated with LVM index (β =0.073, 0.099, -0.005, 0.005, 0.237 and 0.237, respectively; all p-values <0.05). The correlations were not significant for fasting glucose, total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). In women, SBP, HDL-C and WC were correlated with LVM index in the univariate analysis (β =0.066, -0.050 and 0.318, respectively; all p-values <0.05), whereas the correlation was merely significant for WC in the multiple linear regression analysis (β =0.197; p-value <0.001). Conclusions: In physically active adults, the associations of cardiometabolic risk markers with LVM might vary by sex. Greater physical fitness associated with greater LVM was noted only in men, while greater WC was the only metabolic risk marker for greater LVM in both men and women.