Abstract

Asian Indians are at risk of diabetes, hypertension(HT) and coronary diseases due to genetic background. Changing lifestyle, obesity also has correlation with HT and coronary damages. Autonomic imbalance with sympathetic hyper, parasympathetic hypoactivity leads to hypertension, which is also noted in prehypertensives obese. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a noninvasive method to evaluate sympathovagal balance. Visceral fat (VF) also correlates with sympathovagal imbalance (SVI), and is a sensitive indicator, as compared to BMI to assess obesity. With paucity of data that shows that autonomic imbalance slowly change normotensives to prehypertensives in obese Present study evaluate link between visceral fat and autonomic health in normotensives and prehypertensives. Material & method: This study was conducted under the supervision of the Dept. of Physiology, MGM Medical College Aurangabad after Institutional ethical clearance was obtained. 80 consented health care students in the age group of 18-25 years of either sex, satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. Group1 (n=40): Normotensives, with BMI < 25;Group 2(n=40): Prehypertensives with BMI ≥ 25. Anthropometric data was collected, i.e. height, weight, BMI, waist/hip ratio. VF was measured by Body fat analyzer (Omron HBF 375) based on BIA. ANS functions (HRV) were analyzed by a Diabetes risk profiler. Statistical analysis: Level of significance was analyzed by using unpaired student t- test (p< 0.001). Correlation between VF and HRV parameter by Pearson correlation coefficient rejection at p < 0.01. Results & Conclusion: Obese group showed significantly increased BMI, WHR, VF, basal HR and BP as compared to non obese. LFnu and LF:HF were more and HFnu was less in obese group. There was increased sympathetic activity and decreased vagal activity. VF showed significant positive correlation with LFnu & LF:HF ratio and negative correlation with HFnu with sympathovagal imbalance in obese subjects. To conclude that, obese, prehypertensives may suffer from CVD, related to either lowered parasympathetic or higher sympathetic activity & SVI.

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