RSNA: Abdominal Obesity Linked to Harmful Changes to Heart Structure

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Abdominal obesity is associated with more harmful changes to heart structure than body weight alone, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 in Chicago.Jennifer Erley, M.D., from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, and colleagues examined the effect of obesity according to waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) on cardiac structure and function. Participants aged 45 to 74 years underwent 3 Tesla cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging; 2,173 participants were included.Overall, 80 percent of participants had obesity according to WHR and 20 percent had obesity based on BMI. The researchers found that a 0.1 increase in WHR was associated with 3.9 g higher left-ventricular (LV) end-diastolic mass (EDM) and with lower LV and right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic volumes (EDV; −4.4 and −5.7 mL, respectively) and LV and RV end-systolic volumes (ESV; −1.9 and −1.9 mL, respectively), leading to lower stroke volumes (−2.2 and −2.1 mL for LV and RV, respectively). Compared with men, women had a weaker negative association between WHR and RV EDV/RV ESV (−4.5 mL/−2.9 mL per 0.1 increase in WHR). An increase in BMI was associated with 2.3 g higher LV EDM, higher LV EDV (0.5 mL), and higher LV ESV (0.4 mL); no significant associations were seen for RV structure and function."From the perspective of a radiologist, when we see this cardiac remodeling pattern, we currently think of cardiomyopathy, hypertensive heart disease, or some other form of disease, but we don't clinically draw the line to obesity in our reports," Erley said in a statement. "This study should alert radiologists and cardiologists to be more aware that this remodeling could be attributed independently to obesity."Press ReleaseMore Information.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

RSNA: Abdominal Obesity Linked to Harmful Changes to Heart Structure

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