Association of the visceral adiposity index with arterial stiffness in elderly Chinese population

^, Visceral adiposity can produce many compounds that have autocrine, paracrine and endocrine activities, which is associated with abnormal lipid metabolism and insulin resistance. Although the link between visceral adiposity and cardiovascular disease has been extensively studied, the underlying mechanisms are still not clear. Some studies have showed that visceral adiposity is closely related to arterial stiffness and CVD. Estimating the visceral adiposity function with waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) are used to assess CVD risk. ^,

However, these indicators cannot distinguish muscle, subcutaneous and visceral fat masses, or reflect fat distribution.

In recent years, the visceral adiposity index (VAI) has been developed to identify visceral adiposity dysfunction, which considers WC, BMI, triglycerides (TG) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C).

VAI was discovered as an independent determinant of visceral adiposity, which can replace visceral CT scanning. Some studies have shown that VAI is associated with cardiometabolic risk. ^{, ,} Amato et al. reported that the VAI was better than BMI and WC in the assessment of cardiovascular risk associated with visceral obesity. Arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and mortality. ^, There are various methods to measure arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity is a useful and noninvasive tool. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) is associated with vascular damage, which can be used as a surrogate of cardiovascular risk. BaPWV increases with age and is increasingly recognized as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases associated with aging. Several studies showed a link between obesity parameters and arterial stiffness in older adults. Ageing is associated with an increase in obesity. Obesity, adiposity and visceral adiposity are related to baPWV and play important role to influence vascular aging. ^, However, there is limited data of the relationship between VAI and arterial stiffness in elderly population. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between VAI and arterial stiffness (assessed by baPWV) in a cohort of elderly Chinese individuals.