BACKGROUND

Obesity is an established risk factor for coronary heart disease. However, data on the relationship between obesity and prognosis following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are still lacking in Japan.

RESULTS

In the present study, 1,458 AMI patients were enrolled in the AMI-Kyoto Multi-Center Risk Study between January 2000 and December 2003. Among survivors of hospitalized AMI, clinical characteristics and medium-term prognosis were retrospectively compared between 240 normal weight male patients [body mass index (BMI) 18.5-25.0 kg/m2, normal weight group], and 116 obese male patients (BMI>> or = 25.0 kg/m2, obese group), who could be followed up after hospital discharge. The obese group were younger and had higher prevalence of smoking and hypercholesterolemia than the normal weight group. The two groups had similar angiographic findings and outcomes of primary percutaneous coronary intervention. During the follow-up period (mean 2.18 years for normal weight, 2.15 years for obese), overall mortality rate as well as event-free survival rate did not differ significantly between the two groups. Multivariate analysis showed the presence of previous myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, and age were predictors of medium-term mortality, but BMI was not.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that obesity is not associated with increased medium-term mortality and cardiac morbidity in Japanese male survivors hospitalized for AMI.