Correlation between body fat components and coronary heart disease risk scores

Introduction: Though body fat is well known risk factor for coronary heart disease, it is not known whether components of body fat can be considered equivalent to coronary heart disease prediction scores in predicting future risk of coronary heart disease. AIM: To test correlation between coronary heart disease risk scores and components of body fat. Material and methods: The study subjects were evaluated clinically. Anthropometric data were obtained. Serum fasting lipid profile was tested. Body fat and components were tested by Omron karada scan. Framingham score, PROCAM score and Vascular age were calculated. Correlation between coronary heart disease risk scores with subcutaneous tissue fat, visceral fat, total body fat, WHR and BMI was tested by Pearsons correlation. Results and Data Analysis: Our study included 103 patients. 44.7% study subjects were diabetic. 35% of the male patients were smokers. Framingham Risk score was significantly higher in males ( p value 0.0000). BMI, Total body fat percentage, tissue fat and visceral fat levels were not found to correlate with coronary heart disease risk scores. Regression analysis showed visceral fat as the strongest correlate of each of the coronary heart disease risk scores, and WHR was the next most significant independent predictor of these outcomes. Conclusion: Waist Hip Ratio (WHR), visceral fat are best correlates of coronary heart disease risk scores and can be considered as surrogates of coronary heart disease risk prediction scores in clinical practice.