Greater intramuscular thigh fat associated with heart failure: JACC Study

USA: An article published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology found that, after controlling cardiometabolic risk variables, increased intramuscular thigh fat (but not intermuscular fat) is independently associated with heart failure (HF).

Being overweight is a risk factor for heart failure (HF). Fat buildup in and around the peripheral skeletal muscles may be another indicator of HF risk. As a result, Kevin Huynh and colleagues undertook this study to assess the relationship between intramuscular and intermuscular fat deposition and incident HF in a longitudinal cohort of community-dwelling older people.

In order to carry out this study, the correlations of intramuscular and intermuscular fat with incident HF were examined through Cox models among 2,399 participants from the Health ABC (Health, Aging, and Body Composition) research (70-79 years old, 48% male, 40.2% black) who did not have baseline HF. Intramuscular fat was calculated using computed tomography and intermuscular fat mass was calculated using computed tomography.

The key findings of this study were as follows:

1. There were 485 incident HF occurrences after a median follow-up of 12.2 years.

2. Greater sex-specific tertiles of intramuscular and intermuscular fat were both linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

3. Greater intramuscular fat was linked with a higher risk of HF after multivariable adjustment for age, gender, race, education, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, current smoking, prevalent cardiovascular disease, and creatinine.

4. After adjusting for body mass index, total percent fat, and indexed thigh muscular strength, this connection remained significant.

5. Greater intramuscular fat was found to be associated with a higher risk of incident HF with decreased ejection fraction, but not with HF with intact ejection fraction.

In conclusion, a higher degree of intramuscular fat infiltration in the thighs was linked to an increased risk of heart failure. The connection was unaffected by other cardiometabolic risk variables or adiposity measurements such as BMI.

Reference:

Huynh, K., Ayers, C., Butler, J., Neeland, I., Kritchevsky, S., Pandey, A., Barton, G., & Berry, J. D. (2022). Association between thigh muscle fat infiltration and incident heart failure. JACC: Heart Failure, 10(7), 485–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2022.04.012