Abdominal Fat and Imaging Measurements of Heart Disease
Abdominal Fat and Imaging Measurements of Heart Disease
Although it is frequently mentioned in the media that overweight and obesity have reached
 epidemic proportions worldwide and in this country, some Canadians are perplexed and
 sometimes confused about the role of obesity in diabetes and heart disease. In fact, the
 investigators even hear from time to time that there could be "healthy" obese individuals. In
 clinical practice, assessment of obesity as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD)
 remains a challenge as even some physicians are confused. However, studies conducted in our
 laboratory and by other research teams around the world over the last 20 years have clearly
 shown that body shape is more important than body size when evaluating the risk of
 overweight/obesity and that high accumulation of abdominal fat (excess belly fat) increases
 the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

 The investigators now need to better understand the link between excess belly fat and
 atherosclerosis (the thickening of artery walls by fatty deposits, also referred to as
 atherosclerotic plaque), leading to complications such as angina (chest pain) and myocardial
 infarction (heart attacks). Using non-invasive imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance
 imaging, the investigators therefore propose to examine the relationships between measures of
 fatness and of abdominal fat and the size of atherosclerotic plaque in large blood vessels of
 apparently healthy human subjects. This study is also a unique opportunity to look, for the
 first time, at the relationship between belly fat, blood sugar, several well-known risk
 factors for heart disease (cholesterol, blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness, etc.) and
 the size of atherosclerotic plaques. This research program should pave the way to the
 development of new improved preventive/therapeutic approaches focusing not on body weight but
 rather on abdominal fat and associated blood abnormalities which are predictive of the
 development of atherosclerotic plaques leading to the premature development of heart disease.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Men and women aged 35-65 years

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Massive obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2)

 -  Pharmacological treatment for lipids, hypertension and/or type 2 diabetes

 -  Clinical signs of cardiovascular disease

 -  Chronic inflammatory or auto-immune diseases

 -  Pulmonary diseases on corticosteroids

 -  Cancers not in remission

 -  History or clinical evidence of coronary heart disease (CHD)

 -  History of revascularisation procedures

 -  Current smoking

 -  Hormonal replacement therapy