Determination of risk factors in obese and non-obese patients with coronary artery disease

Objective - Obesity is a complex multifactorial chronic disorder recently classified by the American Heart Association (AHA) as a modifiable risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). This study was designed to assess conventional and novel risk factors in obese and non-obese patients with CAD. Methods and results - This study evaluates the association between conventional and novel coronary risk factors and CAD in obese and non-obese patients by using multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis. The obese CAD group was identified by the following predictors of CAD: age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, family history of CAD, low level of HDL cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol, high C-reactive protein, high homocysteine. In a non-obese CAD group, the identified predictors of CAD were age, sex, hypertension, smoking, family history of CAD, levels of high C-reactive protein, and high homocysteine. Hypertension was found to be the strongest predictor for both obese (OR: 39.91, 95% confidence intervals (Cl): 5.51-280.3, p < 0.001) and non-obese (OR: 14.39, 95% CI: 4.4-25.8, p < 0.001) patients with CAD. Conclusions - From our data, we conclude that hypertension appears to be the strongest independent predictor of CAD regardless of body mass index (BMI).