ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
This article is part of the Research TopicInvestigating the Roles of Nutritional Determinants, Genetic Predispositions, and Environmental Risk Factors in the development of Obesity and Associated Metabolic DisordersView all 8 articles
The Association between Body Mass Index and Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction in Obese Patients with Atrial Fibrillation Referred for Catheter Ablation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
- 2Nanchang University Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang, China
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Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been found to be one of the most common arrhythmia, associated with obesity and metabolic disorders. However, little is known about the association between body mass index (BMI) and left atrial size and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in AF patients referred for catheter ablation. Methods: We retrospectively obtained a dataset (N=170) from the Dryad database that the association between alcohol consumption, cardiac biomarkers, left atrial size and re-ablation in obese AF patients referred for catheter ablation was analyzed from the SMURF (Symptom burden, Metabolic profile, Ultrasound findings, Rhythm, neurohormonal activation, haemodynamics and health-related quality of life in patients with atrial Fibrillation) study. Multivariable linear regression models were established to investigate the association of baseline BMI value with left atrial size and LVEF among these patients. Results: Correlation analysis was displayed that BMI value was negatively associated with LVEF, but had no any correlation with left atrial volume (LAV)/body surface area (BSA). When evaluating BMI as an independent variable, our linear regression analysis for adjusted coefficient of LVEF [correlation coefficient= -0.46, 95% CI: (-0.78, -0.15), P=0.0049] was very significant after age, gender, smoking, alcohol consumption and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were controlled for. However, the correlation coefficient for LAVmax/BSA and LAVmin/BSA was -0.01 and 0.13 respectively, without significant statistical significance after adjusting same covariates. Conclusion: We observed that BMI value had a significantly negative correlation with LVEF, rather than LAVmax/BSA and LAVmin/BSA in obese AF patients referred for catheter ablation. This implied that obesity might have a higher risk for weakened cardiac contractile function in these patients.
Keywords: Atrial Fibrillation, ejection fraction, Heart Failure, linear regression, Obesity
Received: 25 Sep 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wan, Su and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ying Huang
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