Waist-to-hip ratio tied to MACE risk in females with coronary artery disease

There appears to be a link between waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and higher risks of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) in females with coronary artery disease, according to a recent study.

Over a median follow-up of 5.7 years, 415 patients experienced at least 1 MACE event. Multivariate models showed that females in the highest WHR tertile had significantly higher risk of MACE relative to those in the lowest tertile (hazard ratio [HR], 1.85; 95 percent CI, 1.16–2.94; p=0.01).

Treating WHR as a continuous variable resulted in a similar trend. Each 0.10-unit rise in WHR was associated with a significant increase in the risk of MACEs in females (HR, 1.32; 1.08–1.61; p=0.007). All associations were robust to adjustments for body mass index (BMI)

In contrast, central obesity, as measured by WHR, did not seem to significantly affect MACE risk in males (HR for third vs first tertile, 0.92; 0.69–1.22; p=0.54; HR for each 0.10-unit increase in WHR, 0.98; 0.85-1.13; p=0.81).

The study included 1,529 CAD patients (mean age 63.1±12.5 years; 74 percent male) referred to cardiac rehabilitation. Participants were classified according to BMI groups and sex-specific tertiles of WHR. A composite outcome of stroke, death, ventricular arrhythmia, revascularization and acute coronary syndrome was used to define MACEs.