Increased association of coronary artery calcification in apparently healthy Korean adults with hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype: The Kangbuk Samsung Health Study

Background Hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype is a simple screening parameter to identify people at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. We evaluated whether hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTGW) phenotype increases the risk for coronary artery calcification (CAC) in apparently healthy Korean adults. Methods A total of 32,186 participants (mean age 41.3, 80.2% men) in a health screening program, in whom the coronary artery calcium score (CACS) was measured, were analyzed. Subjects were divided into four groups: 1) normal waist circumference (WC)-normal triglyceride (TG) (NWNT), 2) normal WC-high TG (NWHT), 3) enlarged WC-normal TG (EWNT), and 4) enlarged WC-high TG (EWHT). Enlarged WC was defined as WC ≥ 90 cm for men and ≥ 85 cm for women; high serum TG was defined as TG ≥ 150 mg/dL. The presence of CAC was defined by CACS > 0, and CACS was analyzed in a logarithmized form of CACS plus 1 {ln(CACS + 1)}. Results A total of 14.9% of the participants had CAC. The EWHT group showed the highest mean value for ln(CACS + 1) among the four groups. The EWHT group showed the highest odds ratio for CAC, with NWHT group the second, and with EWNT group the third compared with the NWNT group after adjusting for confounding variables (1.579, 1.302, and 1.266 vs. NWNT). Conclusions The EWHT group showed the highest association for CAC, suggesting this HTGW phenotype as a useful marker for the detection of subjects with high cardiometabolic risk in healthy Korean adults.