IMR Press / RCM / Volume 10 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.3909/ricm0480

Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine (RCM) is published by IMR Press from Volume 19 Issue 1 (2018). Previous articles were published by another publisher in Open Access under a CC-BY (or CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with MedReviews, LLC.

Open Access Review
Impact of Obesity in Patients With Congestive Heart Failure
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1 Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Division of Cardiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2009, 10(3), 142–151; https://doi.org/10.3909/ricm0480
Published: 30 September 2009
Abstract
Obesity is a known risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, including heart failure. However, the impact of obesity on patients with heart failure is unclear. Weight reduction is a recommended method of prevention of cardiovascular disease. However, the phenomenon of the “obesity paradox” (or “reverse epidemiology”) revealed that overweight and mild to moderate obesity are associated with better outcomes in patients with heart failure compared with patients at normal or ideal weight. Even more, increases of weight in cachectic heart failure patients might improve survival, although patients with heart failure who are overweight or mildly to moderately obese have better outcomes than patients with heart failure who are at ideal or normal weight. In heart failure patients, weight reduction through diet regulation, moderate exercise, and bariatric surgery can improve quality of life and New York Heart Association functional class, but it is yet unclear if these measures will improve survival.
Keywords
Heart failure
Obesity
Weight reduction
Reverse epidemiology
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