VISCERAL FAT TISSUE AS A SIGNIFICANT CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTOR IN CORRELATION WITH SUBCLINICAL ORGAN DAMAGE IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

Abstract

Objective: Postmenopausal women are a special group of the cardiological patients. Every effort should be made to search for subclinical organ damage in this group, the presence of which correlates with the amount of visceral fat tissue. Design and method: We examined 156 postmenopausal women. The average age of them was 65,3 years old. 41% of them had type 2 diabetes; 46% of them were taking statins. Pulse wave velocity (PWV), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), body mass index (BMI) and lipid profile were evaluated. Visceral fat tissue, body weight and fat mass were performed by Tanita MC980 MA Plus analyzer. We assessed cardiovascular risk according to: SCORE2 and SCORE2- OP scales. Statistical calculations were performed in the StatSoft Statistica 10: ?Spearmana was taken to analyze the correlation of statistically significant values. Results: We revealed following results [∗for p<= 0,05; ∗∗for p<0,001]. People with higher body weight characterized by higher SBP and DBP. Lower fat mass and BMI resulted with lower DBP. The lower fat mass, BMI and the amount of visceral fat tissue, the higher HDL cholesterol level. People with higher fat mass, BMI and the amount of visceral fat tissue were more likely to have type 2 diabetes.Patients with higher amount of visceral fat tissue characterized by greater aortic stiffness and more often required lipid-lowering therapy. The amount of visceral fat tissue correlated with age of the patients and their cardiovascular risk assessed by SCORE2/SCORE2OP scales. Conclusions: The amount of visceral fat tissue should be taken into account in assessing the patient‘s cardiovascular risk and occurrence of cardiological subclinical organ damage. Weight loss must be considered as an important factor in the reducing of blood pressure. The likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes is correlated with higher BMI and fat mass. Reduction of BMI, fat mass and the amount of visceral fat tissue results with better lipid profile. Greater amount of visceral fat tissue results in more frequent need of starting lipid-lowering therapy.