Overweight or obesity is inversely associated with aortic pressure augmentation from peripheral wave reflection, but this association is attenuated in women, reveals a study.
In addition, sex differences in aortic pressure augmentation are higher in people with abdominal obesity than in those with general obesity.
A total of 928 adults (mean age 56 years) participated in this study. The researchers recorded the participants’ tonometric pressure waveforms to estimate the aortic augmentation index. They also calculated the body mass index (BMI) using height and body weight and measured the waist circumference at the umbilical level.
Women showed a significantly higher aortic augmentation index than men. Indices of obesity (ie, BMI and waist circumference) had a negative association with the aortic augmentation index in both men and women, even after adjusting for mean arterial pressure (p<0.001 for both).
Sex and BMI did not exhibit a “synergistic effect” on the aortic augmentation index. However, when waist circumference was used instead of BMI, sex and waist circumference showed a reciprocal influence on decreasing the aortic augmentation index, independent of age, mean arterial pressure, diabetes, and hyperlipidaemia (p=0.045 for interaction).
“Pressure wave reflection predicts cardiovascular events in the general population. Obesity is negatively associated with pressure wave reflection,” the researchers said.
“Muscular arterial diameter (responsible for pressure wave reflection) increases with obesity, and obesity-dependent dilation of muscular arteries is attenuated in women compared with men,” they added.