A Body Shape Index as a Simple Anthropometric Marker of Abdominal Obesity and Risk of Cardiovascular Events.

BACKGROUND: A Body Shape Index (ABSI) has been reported to have associations with cardiovascular risk factors. However, there is no information on the association between ABSI and incidence of cardiovascular events.

METHODS: We investigated the associations between ABSI and first major cardiovascular events (death from cardiovascular disease, nonfatal acute coronary syndrome, and nonfatal stroke) in 1857 subjects from the database of Flow-Mediated Dilation Japan registry and from Hiroshima University Vascular Function registry.

RESULTS: The areas under the curves of ABSI to predict the first major cardiovascular events were superior to BMI (men: P=0.032, women: P=0.015) and waist circumference in women (men: P=0.078, women: P=0.002). The subjects were divided into two groups based on the cutoff value of ABSI for predicting first major cardiovascular events: a low ABSI group (<0.0822 in men and <0.0814 in women) and a high ABSI group (≥0.0822 in men and ≥0.0814 in women). During a median follow-up period of 41.6 months, 56 subjects died (23 from cardiovascular causes), 16 had nonfatal acute coronary syndrome, and 14 had nonfatal stroke. The Kaplan-Meier curves for first major cardiovascular events were significantly different between the two groups (men, P<0.001; women, P<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that high ABSI remained an independent predictor of first major cardiovascular events (men: hazard ratio, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.07 to 5.06; P=0.033; women: hazard ratio, 8.33; 95% CI, 1.06 to 65.49; P=0.044).

CONCLUSIONS: High ABSI is independently associated with incidence of cardiovascular events. ABSI calculation should be performed for evaluation of risk of cardiovascular events.