Sagittal abdominal diameter compared with other anthropometric measurements in relation to cardiovascular risk

BACKGROUND: Abdominal adiposity has been described as an independent risk f actor for coronary heart disease. Sagittal abdominal diameter has been foun d to be closely related to the amount of visceral adipose tissue. AIM: To c ompare the sagittal abdominal diameter with other anthropometric measures r egarding their relationships to risk factors for coronary heart disease (CH D). DESIGN: A study of 885 men and women participating in a health survey. MEASUREMENTS: Sagittal abdominal diameter, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, waist-to-hip ratio, serum concentrations of risk facto rs for CHD, blood pressure. RESULTS: In men the sagittal abdominal diameter showed stronger correlation s to the CHD risk factors serum cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, apolipoprotein B (apoB), plas minogen activator inhibitor tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and li pid-corrected alpha tocopherol, and to systolic and diastolic blood pressur es than the other anthropometric measurements. In women, compared with the other anthropometric measurements the sagittal abdominal diameter was more strongly correlated to serum cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, LDL/HDL (high-de nsity lipoprotein), apo B and t-PA, and to systolic and diastolic blood pre ssure. The sagittal abdominal diameter showed a stronger correlation to 'to tal risk' for cardiovascular disease (+ 0.66 for men, + 0.62 for women), th an waist circumference (+ 0.63 for men, + 0.57 for women) and waist-to-hip ratio (+ 0.61 for men and + 0.48 for women; P < 0.0001 for all correlations ). This diameter was also more strongly correlated to 'metabolic risk' (+ 0 .64 for men, + 0.59 for women) than waist circumference (+ 0.60 for men, 0.59 for women) and waist-to-hip ratio (+ 0.58 for men, + 0.52 for women)(P < 0.0001 for all correlations). In a regression analysis including the ant hropometric measurements and the risk values, the sagittal diameter was the strongest measure of cardiovascular risk in both men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Among both men and women in this study the sagittal abdominal diameter showed stronger correlations to cardiovascular risk and to other r isk factors in the metabolic syndrome than other anthropometric variables s uch as waist circumference, waist-to hip ratio and BMI.