Washington: People who have pockets of fat hidden inside their muscles have a higher risk of having a heart attack or being hospitalized for a heart attack, regardless of their body mass index, according to new research. Ho.This is the first study to comprehensively examine the effects of fatty muscle mass on heart disease. The new finding provides evidence that existing measures, such as body mass index or waist circumference, are not sufficient to accurately assess heart disease risk for all people.

The new study was led by Professor Vivian Tacqueti, Director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital and faculty of Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. He said: “Obesity is now one of the greatest global threats to cardiovascular health. Yet body mass index – our main metric for defining obesity and thresholds for intervention – remains a controversial and flawed marker of heart disease diagnosis. This is especially true in women, where a higher body mass index may reflect more 'benign' types of fat.

“Intermuscular fat can be found in most muscles of the body, but the amount of fat can vary widely between different people. In our research, we analyze muscle and different types of fat to understand how “How body composition can affect the heart's small blood vessels, or 'microcirculation,' as well as future risk of heart failure, heart attack, and death.”

The new research involved 669 people who were being evaluated for chest pain and/or shortness of breath at Brigham and Women's Hospital and found that they had no evidence of obstructive coronary artery disease. Patients were followed for about six years and researchers recorded whether any patients died or were hospitalized for a heart attack or heart failure.