Progression of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis : Does obesity make a difference?

Obesity is associated with coronary artery calcification (CAC), a marker of the presence and extent of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. Obesity adds incremental information in identifying those at higher risk of coronary heart disease to traditional risk factor assessment. The present study examined associations between obesity measures and progression of CAC in those at higher (> or =10%) and lower (30 years of age (243 men) had baseline and follow-up CAC measurements an average of 8.9 years apart. Multivariable linear regression models were fit to determine associations of obesity measures at baseline with progression of CAC defined as log(e) of the difference between follow-up and baseline CAC area plus 1 divided by time (in years) between examinations, adjusting for baseline CAC quantity, age, sex, baseline hypertension status, and baseline cholesterol level. Among 329 participants (74.3%) in the lower-risk group, waist circumference (P=0.024), waist-to-hip ratio (P