Obesity distorts the results of diagnosis and treatment of heart disease

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Being overweight affects your heart health more than you think. A new review paper by the Mayo Clinic's JACC explores how obesity affects common tests used to diagnose heart disease and affects treatment. Writes about it NewsMedical.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the US and worldwide, but is largely preventable.

“Excess body fat acts as a sort of filter and can skew test readings towards under- or overdiagnosis. Obesity affects almost all diagnostic tests used in cardiology, such as ECG, CT, MRI and echocardiogram,” says Francisco López-Jiménez, MD and director of preventive cardiology at the Mayo Clinic

Procedural interventions, such as placement of a stent through the leg or heart surgery, may be more difficult to perform in patients with significant obesity. It can also cause a lot of complications, such as an increased risk of infection at the site of the wound.

Obese patients will need to adjust standard drug therapy for cardiovascular disease. Some drugs, such as beta-blockers, can interfere with a patient's ability to lose weight, and Dr. Lopez-Jiménez emphasizes the importance of using alternative approaches to prevent or help such patients gain weight. weight loss.

Weight loss recommendations can be difficult to follow because patients with heart disease find it harder to move and feel short of breath during exercise. This often prevents patients from engaging in physical activity, but Dr. Lopez -Jiménez points out that exercise is important not only for weight loss, but also for heart health.

A standard weight loss program includes a therapist, a nutritionist, and sometimes a psychologist. If that's not enough, Dr. Lopez-Jiménez says, that there are other resources, such as bariatric surgery and medications, that can help help patients lose weight. Mayo Clinic recently launched a multidisciplinary cardiometabolic program to combat obesity, reduce comorbidities, and help patients improve their quality of life.

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