Are Metabolic Factors Associated with Coronary Artery Stenosis on MDCT?

Background: The association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) as determined by multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT) is unclear.

Methods And Results: The number of significantly stenosed vessels (VD), coronary artery calcification score, visceral fat area (VFA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), and abdominal circumference were quantified using MDCT. Plasma levels of metabolic factors were also measured. Plasma levels of adiponectin were negatively correlated with body mass index, diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, hemoglobin A(1c), fasting glucose, SFA, VFA and waist circumference, and positively correlated with age and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C). VD in the MetS group was significantly higher than in the non-MetS group. In the 5 groups classified according to the number of metabolic factors, adiponectin was significantly decreased, whereas VD was significantly increased as the number of factors increased. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the number of VD was most closely correlated with HDL-C (P=0.0014).

Conclusions: Of the metabolic factors, lower levels of HDL-C may be most useful for predicting CAD independent of other metabolic markers such as adiponectin, VFA or present medication.