A possible relationship of body mass index with coronary artery calcium score and obstructive coronary artery disease

Background: This study aims to investigate the relationship of body mass index (BMI) with coronary artery calcium score (CACs) and obstructive coronary artery disease. Methods: A total of 473 patients (341 males, 132 females; mean age 49.9 +/- 11.5 years; range 26 to 78 years) who had symptomatic or asymptomatic cardiovascular disease and underwent multislice computed tomography (MSCT) angiography with coronary artery calcium screening in our clinic between February 2007 and October 2011 were included. All patients were divided into three groups according to their BMI. Coronary artery calcium scoring was performed and all coronary segments were visually inspected through MSCT angiography. Calcium scores were classified as low (between 0-25th percentile), moderate (25-75th percentile) or high (75-100th percentile). Patients who had no plaques or had a plaque with no significant stenosis were classified as normal, patients with <50% stenosis who had at least one plaque were classified as having non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), and patients with >= 50% stenosis who had at least, one plaque were classified as having obstructive CAD. In this study:group 1 included 89 patients (18.8%) (20 kg/m(2) <= BMI<25 kg/m(2)), group 2 included 209 patients (44.2%) (25 kg/m(2) <= BMI<30 kg/m(2)) and group 3 patients consisted of 175 (37%) (30 kg/m(2) <= BMI). Results: For CACs, a high correlation with 0.96 (p<0.01) between group 1 and group 2, a low correlation with 0.18 between group 1 and group 3, and a moderate correlation with 0.44 (0>0.05) between group 2 and group 3 were found. For CAD, a high correlation with 0.96 (p<0.01) between group 1 and group 2, a high correlation with 0.98 (p<0.01) between group 1 and group 3, and a high correlation with 0.90 (p<0.01) between group 2 and group 3 were observed. Conclusion: Our study showed that the relation between BMI and CACs decreased as BMI as BMI increased and the relation between BMI and CAD increased as BMI increased.