Body Fat and Fitness for VAD Therapy

By 2030, 1 in 2 adults in the United States will be obese, defined as a body mass index (BMI) ≥30kg/m2, and nearly 1 in 4 will suffer from extreme obesity with a BMI ≥35 kg/m2.1 Obesity can impair left ventricular structure and contractile function and is an independent risk factor for the development of heart failure (HF). Although there is a modest protective benefit to being overweigh t once HF is established—the famous “obesity paradox—an increasing number of obese patients with advanced systolic HF are undergoing evaluation for heart transplantation and durable mechanical circulatory support (MCS).
Source: Journal of Cardiac Failure - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research