Background: Although obesity is associated with alterations in left ventricular (LV) mass and volume which are of prognostic significance, widely differing patterns of remodelling have been attributed to adiposity. Our aim was to define the relationship between body composition and LV geometry using three-dimensional cardiovascular magnetic resonance.
Methods: In an observational study 1530 volunteers (55 % female, mean age 41.3 years) without known cardiovascular disease underwent investigation including breath-hold high spatial resolution 3D cines. Atlas-based segmentation and co-registration was used to create a statistical model of wall thickness (WT) and relative wall thickness (RWT) throughout the LV. The relationship between bio-impedence body composition and LV geometry was assessed using 3D regression models adjusted for age, systolic blood pressure (BP), gender, race and height, with correction to control the false discovery rate.
Results: LV mass was positively associated with fat mass in women but not in men (LV mass: women β = 0.11, p < 0.0001; men β = -0.01, p = 0.82). The 3D models revealed that in males fat mass was strongly associated with a concentric increase in relative wall thickness (RWT) throughout most of the LV (β = 0.37, significant area = 96 %) and a reduced mid-ventricular cavity (β = -0.22, significant area = 91 %). In women the regional concentric hypertrophic association was weaker, and the basal lateral wall showed an inverse relationship between RWT and fat mass (β = -0.11, significant area = 4.8 %).
Conclusions: In an adult population without known cardiovascular disease increasing body fat is predominately associated with asymmetric concentric hypertrophy independent of systolic BP, with women demonstrating greater cavity dilatation than men. Conventional mass and volume measurements underestimate the impact of body composition on LV structure due to anatomic variation in remodelling.
Keywords: Body composition; Cardiac atlas; Cardiac remodelling; Cardiovascular magnetic resonance; Obesity.