Impact of body fat distribution on long-term clinical outcomes after drug-eluting stent implantation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The distribution of body fat is closely related to cardiovascular disease and outcomes, although its impact on patient prognosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stent (DES) has not been evaluated. We investigated the impact of truncal fat distribution on long-term clinical outcomes after DES treatment. METHODS: In 441 DES-treated patients, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was performed to assess total and regional body fat distribution after index PCI. The ratio of truncal fat to total body fat mass (%FMtrunk/FMtotal) was calculated as a representative parameter for truncal fat distribution. The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACE), a composite of ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization (TVR), non-procedural myocardial infarction, cardiac death at 5 years. RESULTS: During the median follow-up duration of 1780 days, MACE occurred in 22.0% of patients, with the highest-quartile group of %FMtrunk/FMtotal having a higher rate than the lowest quartile group (27.8% vs. 15.3%; log rank p = 0.026). The difference was driven by a higher rate of ischemia-driven TVR (25.9% vs. 9.9%; log rank p = 0.008). In multivariable Cox regression analyses, %FMtrunk/FMtotal was independently associated with MACE (hazard ratio: 1.075; 95% CI: 1.022-1.131; p = 0.005), but body mass index (BMI) was not. CONCLUSIONS: In DES-treated patients, truncal fat distribution is associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes and is more clinically relevant than BMI.