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Author Spotlight: Assessing the Cardiovascular Profile of Patients with Metabolic Syndrome
Published on: September 27, 2024
Calf circumference and risk of cardiovascular disease
Chih-Hsuan Hsiang1,2,3, Chen-Jung Wu1,2,4, Tung-Wei Kao1,2,3
1Division of Family Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital; and School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Aim:
Calf circumference (CC) is an anthropometric parameter that is easily obtained. Increasingly, research has shown that CC related to cardiovascular events. We aimed to determine the correlation between CC and Framingham risk score (FRS) for the 10-year cardiovascular disease risk assessment in Taiwanese elderly aged ≥65 years.
Methods:
We included 540 men and 683 women aged ≥65 years. All participants and data were collected from geriatric physical screenings in Tri-Service General Hospital in Taiwan during 2017. The correlation between CC and FRS-coronary heart disease (CHD) were calculated. We used multivariate regression models to investigate the correlation between CC and FRS-CHD. Covariate adjustments were investigated by performing an extended model.
Results:
A significantly negative association was observed between FRS-CHD and CC in both genders in both models (all P < 0.05). Male and female participants were divided into quartiles at the CC level (Q1-Q4) and we compared their baseline characteristics separately. We further explored the association between CC divided in quartiles and the FRS-CHD, which exhibited a significant negative correlation comparing the largest quartiles with the first quartile in a fully adjusted model in both genders (P < 0.05). In addition, the higher quartiles of CC seemed to have a lower FRS-CHD with statistical significance (P for trend <0.05).
Discussion:
CC had a strongly negative correlation with FRS-CHD in both genders. In the future, CC might be an applicable tool in geriatric research in Taiwan for the early detection of developing cardiovascular events. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; 20: 1133-1137.
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