P373Arterial stiffness changes in patients with obesity and atrial fibrillation

Abstract

Abstract Objective To study the changes in arterial stiffness in patients with obesity and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). Materials and methods The study included 82 obese patients. Forty-two of them (group I) had paroxysmal AF, their mean age was 60.9 ± 6.2 years. The control group (group II) included 40 obese patients in sinus rhythm with the mean age of 57.2 ± 6.5 years. We studied arterial stiffness using cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) measured by the VaSera device (VS-1000) in all the patients. Patients from group I were evaluated after 3 days of sinus rhythm restoration and maintenance. We also measured the anthropometric indicators which included body mass index, waist circumference, abdominal sagittal diameter, waist-to-hip and waist-to-height ratios. Results There were no significant differences in body mass index between 2 groups. The waist-to-hip ratio was significantly higher in patients with obesity and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation than in obese patients in sinus rhythm and was 1.37 ± 0.09 and 0.84 ± 0.06, respectively (p = 0.002). The mean value of CAVI was 9.61 ± 1.51 and 6.42 ± 0.18 in group I and group II respectively; this difference was significant (p = 0.001). There was a strong positive correlation between CAVI and waist-to-hip ratio in the group I patients (p = 0.02). The results show that vascular stiffness is significantly higher in obesity patients with paroxysmal form AF. Conclusion Positive correlations between increased arterial stiffness and anthropometric indicators confirm the role of visceral obesity in the development of AF.