Morphofunctional Evaluation of the Heart of Obese Patients Before and After Bariatric Surgery

This study aims to evaluate the effect of weight loss on the physical capacity and the structure and function of the heart after bariatric surgery. Forty-three adult obese patients, 31 women (72.1%) and 12 men (27.9%), were submitted to electrocardiogram, ergometric test, and echo Doppler cardiogram at presurgical stage and 1 year after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. The statistical analysis utilized the Wilcoxon, Student's t, and Shapiro-Wilk tests with 5% significance level. Weight was reduced from 116.5 +/- 21.5 to 80 +/- 15.9 kg and body mass index from 41.8 +/- 4.4 to 28.4 +/- 3.8 kg/m(2). Cardiac frequency was reduced from 77.9 +/- 9.6 to 70.9 +/- 7.8 bpm, systolic pressure from 130 +/- 20 to 120 +/- 10 mmHg, and diastolic pressure from 80 +/- 10 to 80 +/- 0 mmHg. Ergometric tests showed distance covered from 378.9 +/- 126.5 to 595 +/- 140.4 m, metabolic coefficient from 6.7 +/- 2.4 to 8.3 +/- 2.6 ml O-2/kg/min, and oxygen consumption (VO2) from 23.1 +/- 8.4 to 30 +/- 10.3 metabolic equivalents of task. The echo Doppler cardiogram showed interventricular septum from 12 +/- 2 to 10 +/- 1 mm, posterior wall from 11 +/- 2 to 10 +/- 1 mm, and ventricular mass from 273 +/- 85 to 216 +/- 60 g. There was improvement in the diastolic function with an increase in the E'/A' and E/A relationship and the ejection fraction with an increase from 70.2 +/- 7.2% to 72.9 +/- 6.4%. Bariatric surgery improved physical capacity as well as structural and functional improvement of the heart.