Elevated body mass index and use of coronary revascularization after cardiac catheterization

Obese persons suffer discrimination in society that may extend to health care use. We investigated whether overweight and obese patients are as likely to undergo coronary reperfusion or revascularization as patients of normal body weight.

Detailed clinical data were collected for an inception cohort of patients from Alberta, Canada, who underwent cardiac catheterization between April 2001 and March 2004. The patients' likelihood of receiving any revascularization, percutaneous coronary intervention, or coronary artery bypass graft surgery in the year after cardiac catheterization was examined on the basis of body mass index (BMI) grouping. Use of revascularization was examined separately for patients with high- and low-risk coronary disease.

Of 27,460 patients who had BMI data recorded, 24% were of normal weight, 42% were overweight, and 35% were obese. Although overweight and obese patients were more likely to have percutaneous coronary intervention (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]=1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.12 and HR 1.08, 95% CI, 1.01-1.13, respectively), obese patients (BMI>30) were less likely to receive coronary artery bypass graft surgery (adjusted HR=0.93, 95% CI, 0.87-1.00). This was primarily because of less use of coronary artery bypass graft surgery for the most obese patients (obesity class III) with low-risk coronary anatomy (adjusted HR=0.61, 95% CI, 0.36-1.02).

The pattern of use of revascularization procedures after cardiac catheterization differs somewhat across BMI subgroups. These differences might be clinically appropriate, but they warrant further exploration.