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Observational Study
. 2020 Feb 11;20(1):77.
doi: 10.1186/s12872-020-01376-6.

Body fat percentage and CRP correlates with a composite score of vascular risk markers in healthy, young adults - The Lifestyle, Biomarkers, and Atherosclerosis (LBA) study

Paul Pettersson-Pablo  1   2   3 , Yang Cao  4 , Torbjörn Bäckström  5 , Torbjörn K Nilsson  6 , Anita Hurtig-Wennlöf  7
Affiliations
Observational Study

Body fat percentage and CRP correlates with a composite score of vascular risk markers in healthy, young adults - The Lifestyle, Biomarkers, and Atherosclerosis (LBA) study

Paul Pettersson-Pablo et al. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. .

Abstract

Background: Identification of early signs of atherosclerosis in young adults have the potential to guide early interventions to prevent later cardiovascular disease. We therefore analyzed measures of vascular structure and function and biomarkers of cardiovascular risk in a sample of young healthy adults.

Methods: Pulse-wave velocity (PWV), carotid-intima media thickness (cIMT) and augmentation index (AIX) were measured in 834 healthy non-smokers (ages 18.0-25.9). Emphasis was put on discriminating between individuals having a vascular structure and function associated with a higher or lower risk, and cluster analysis algorithms were employed to assign the subjects into groups based on these vascular measurements. In addition, a vascular status score (VSS) was calculated by summarizing the results according to quintiles of the vascular measurements. The associations between VSS and cardiovascular biomarkers were examined by regression analyses.

Results: The cluster analyses did not yield sufficiently distinct clustering (groups of individuals that could be categorized unequivocally as having either a vascular structure and function associated with a higher or lower CVD risk). VSS proved a better classificatory variable. The associations between VSS and biomarkers of cardiovascular risk were analyzed by univariable and multivariable regressions. Only body fat percentage and C-reactive protein (CRP) were independently associated with VSS.

Conclusions: A VSS calculation, which integrates PWV, cIMT, and AIX measurements is better suited for cardiovascular risk evaluation in young adults than cluster analyses. The independent associations of VSS with body fat percentage and CRP highlight the decisive role of adiposity and systemic inflammation in early atherosclerotic progression and suggests a subordinate role of insulin and lipid metabolism in this age span.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Body fat percentage; CRP; Cardiovascular risk; Cluster analysis; Endothelial dysfunction; Obesity; Young adults.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Clusters indicated by the first two principle components in the k-means (a), PAM (b) and AGNES (c) cluster analyses
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Boxplot visualization of the mean PWV, AIX and cIMT for each of the three clusters, as obtained by the k-means cluster analysis. The vascular variables are z-score transformed
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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