Relationship between visceral fat and cardiovascular disease risk factors: the Tanno and Sobetsu study.

We assessed the amount of visceral fat using ultrasonography (US) and studied its relationship to cardiovascular disease risk factors, particularly blood pressure. The subjects in the first study were 45 male and 61 female outpatients. We measured the visceral fat area (VFA) of each subject using abdominal CT and waist circumference (WC), and visceral fat distance (VFD) using US. The subjects in the second study were 353 male and 457 female inhabitants of a rural community, for whom VFD and WC were measured. We divided subjects into tertiles based on VFD and WC, and studied the relationship between each group and individual risk factors. In an analysis of outpatient subjects, the correlation coefficient between VFA and VFD was satisfactory: r=0.660 for men and r=0.643 for women. In the analysis of the rural subjects, the high VFD group had a significantly higher odds ratio than the low VFD group in high blood pressure (HBP) and hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) for men and in HBP, HTG and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterolemia (LHDL) for women. Moreover, adjusting VFD for body mass index revealed that, in comparison to WC, VFD was significantly related to risk factors. VFD was used as an independent variable in multiple regression analysis with blood pressure level as a dependent variable; no significant association between WC and blood pressure was obtained. Visceral fat assessment by US may be useful for epidemiological study and for clinics with no abdominal CT equipment for identifying high-risk individuals, such as those with metabolic syndrome.

Influence of gender, age and renal function on plasma adiponectin level: the Tanno and Sobetsu study.

DESIGN: The aim of this study was to determine the association between aging and adiponectin level from the aspect of the influence of renal function and sex hormones in humans. METHODS: Serum adiponectin and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels were measured in 964 subjects (372 males) aged 60.3+/-12.5 years. Testosterone and free testosterone levels were measured in 123 males, and estrone and estradiol levels were measured in 114 females. The subjects were divided into two age groups; 65 years of age or older (Age > or = 65 group) and less than 65 years of age (Age < 65 group). RESULTS: Adiponectin level increased linearly with aging in males, whereas it increased dramatically in females until their 50s. The patterns of changes in adiponectin were similar to those in BUN. In multiple- regression analysis using adiponectin as a dependent variable BUN was selected as a significant independent variable in all subjects and in subjects in the Age > or = 65 group, whereas bioactive sex hormones were not selected. CONCLUSIONS: A decrease in adiponectin clearance in the kidney may be the cause of high levels of adiponectin in the elderly. Adiponectin level seems to be influenced more strongly by BUN than by sex hormones and to be increased by a decline in renal function with aging.

Prevalence of asymptomatic arteriosclerosis obliterans and its relationship with risk factors in inhabitants of rural communities in Japan: Tanno-Sobetsu study.

OBJECTIVES: Since arteriosclerosis obliterance in the legs (ASO) causes deterioration of the prognosis of the elderly, prevention of ASO is important for maintenance of their quality of lives. We studied the prevalences of ASO in rural communities in Japan. METHODS AND RESULTS: We measured the ratio of systolic blood pressure in the leg to that in the arm (ABI) using a new device, Form PWV/ABI, in 1398 subjects of both sexes. Subjects with ABI values below 0.9 were considered to have ASO. The prevalence of ASO was 2.7% in all of the subjects, 1.0% in subjects under the age of 60 years, and 3.4% in subjects aged 65 years or more. Multiple regression analysis showed that ABI was correlated with plasma level of total cholesterol in men. There were no significant differences of the mean age, mean fasting plasma glucose level and percentage of patients who smoked between the ASO group and non-ASO group in each sex. Mean cholesterol level in our subjects is lower than the reported levels in Europeans and Americans. The prevalence of ASO increased with increase in the number of risk factors in individual subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Among the atherosclerotic risk factors, age and total cholesterol seem to be more important risk factors of ASO than others.