Visceral adipose tissue demonstrates a stronger association with venous thromboembolism than body mass index

Increased body mass index is associated with an increased risk of venous thrombosis. However, recent data have highlighted that visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume may be a better marker of cardiometabolic risk.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between VAT volume and venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk and explore whether increased VAT volume is associated with VTE risk.

We performed a cross-sectional study using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the UK Biobank. The association between VTE incidence and VAT measured by MRI from 39 144 UK Biobank patients was analyzed by ridge regression accounting for covariates including age and sex.

VAT volume, as measured by MRI, was demonstrated to be associated with an increased risk of VTE (odds ratio [OR], 4.020; 95% CI, 3.752-4.287 per dm³). Moreover, we observed a significant association of VAT volume with VTE risk in both those who were overweight (VAT high-OR, 1.589; 95% CI, 1.317-1.860; VAT medium-OR, 1.303; 95% CI, 1.054-1.552) and those who were obese (VAT high-OR, 3.222; 95% CI, 2.971-3.473). Notably, the strongest association of VAT was observed in those with obesity.

These data demonstrate, for the first time, that VAT volume is associated with an increased risk of VTE and, importantly, has a stronger association with VTE risk compared with that of body mass index.