Relationship Between Normal Weight Central Obesity And Arterial Stiffness In Population With Hypertension

Objective:Normal weight central obesity(NWCO)is a category of obesity that is characterized by having a normal BMI and presence of abdominal obesity.With a normal weight,it’s easy to neglect the health hazards of this obesity phenotype.Recently,studies have reported that NWCO was associated with the cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension,atrial fibrillation,heart failure,dyslipidemia,stroke and mortality.Arterial stiffness is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular event.The researches exploring the relationship between NWCO and arterial stiffness are limited.So this study intended to investigate the relationship between NWCO and arterial stiffness in population with hypertension,and to explore whether there are effect modifiers that have an impact on the association between NWCO and arterial stiffness.Methods:This study is a sub-study of the China H-type Hypertension Registry Study.We included 8580 Chinese hypertensive patients with normal Weight(18.5kg/m~2≤BMI<24kg/m~2)from Wuyuan County,Jiangxi Province and Yuexi County,Anhui Province.Central obesity was defined as waist-height ratio(WHt R)≥0.5,and participants were categorized into two groups:NWCO and normal weight and no central obesity(NWNO).Using the brachial-ankle pulse wave conduction velocity(ba PWV)assessed the arterial stiffness.Multiple linear regression analysis was used to evaluate relationship between NWCO and ba PWV when ba PWV was analysed as a continuous variable.Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate relationship between NWCO and arterial stiffness when ba PWV was analysed as a categorical variable.Result:Of 8580 participants,4253(49.6%)participants were NWNO,4327(50.4%)were NWCO.The mean age of the participants was 62.2 years.The multiple linear regression analysis demonstated that individuals with NWCO had higher ba PWV value(total people:β=38.33,95%CI 22.82-53.84,P<0.001;men:β=39.87,95%CI18.43-61.32,P<0.001;women:β=29.65,95%CI 7.20-52.09,P=0.01)cm/s compared with those having NWNO.The ba PWV≥1800cm/s was defined arterial stiffness,and the multiple logistic regression analysis showed that people with NWCO associated higher arterial stiffness risk(total people:OR=1.25,95%CI 1.12-1.39,P<0.001;men:OR=1.29,95%CI 1.11-1.50,P<0.001;women:β=OR=1.18,95%CI 1.01-1.38,P=0.04).Subgroup analysis showed that,with the exception of diabetes,the relationship between NWCO and a higher risk of arterial stiffness remained stable across subgroups.Conclusion:NWCO is significantly related to increased risk of arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients.It means that early monitoring and intervening of abdominal obesity in normal BMI population with hypertension may have clinical significance in preventing arterial stiffness.