Anthropometric measures of abdominal obesity like waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio as predictors of cardiovascular events in acute coronary syndromes among Indians

Abstract

Background: Advances in the prevention and treatment of CV risk factors have lead to significant reductions in CVD related mortality in the India during the last several decades. Considering these facts, in this study we attempted to determine the association between wide arrays of risk factors especially anthropometric measures of abdominal obesity and ACS and also compared them with age and sex matched controls. Materials & Methods: The present hospital based case-control study was carried out in a tertiary care centre. The study period was two years from November 2009 to November 2011. About 100 cases of acute coronary syndrome and an equal number of age and sex matched controls were studied. All the subjects of ACS and controls were evaluated by following cardiometabolic risk factors: anthropometric measures like BMI, waist circumference and WHR. Results: Chest pain was the predominant presenting symptom (98%). Out of the 100 patients with acute coronary syndrome, 31 had unstable angina, 17 had NSTEMI and 52 had STEMI. Patients of acute coronary syndrome had a significantly higher WHR (0.88±0.17 vs. 0.82±0.08) and BMI (24.59±2.99 vs. 22.63±2.22kg/m2) (p=0.0114 and 0.000 respectively). Conclusion: It can thus conclude that female cases of acute coronary syndrome were older than male cases. Raised WHR, BMI, Hypertension, diabetes, alcohol consumption, smoking, raised total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, LDL, Non-HDL cholesterol, serum uric acid and decreased HDL were the risk factors associated with acute coronary syndrome.