Sex Differences in the Relationship between Abdominal Obesity and Cardiovascular Death in Elderly Patients with Permanent Pacemakers Implantation: A Retrospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the association between waist circumference (WC) and cardiovascular death in patients with permanent pacemakers (PPMs). METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study that enrolled patients who underwent PPM implantation in Fuwai Hospital from May 2010 to April 2014, according to the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring database. The WC was treated as sex-specific quartiles, and patients were divided into three groups according to body mass index (BMI): normal (≤22.9 kg/m(2)), overweight (23–24.9 kg/m(2)), and obese (≥25 kg/m(2)). Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for cardiovascular death according to WC and BMI in patients. RESULTS: 492 patients with PPMs implantation were analyzed (mean age: 71.9 ± 10.8 years; 55.1% men (n = 271)). Data showed that after a mean follow-up 67.2 ± 17.5 months, 24 (4.9%) patients had experienced cardiovascular death and 71 (14.4%) were cases of all-cause mortality. Men in the third quartile of WC had an HR of 10.67 (Model 4, 95% CI: 1.00–115.21, p trend = 0.04) for cardiovascular death. However, the association disappeared in female patients (Model 4, HR = 3.99, 95% CI: 0.37–42.87, p trend = 0.25). There was no association between BMI and cardiovascular death or all-cause mortality in both male and female patients. CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal obesity was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death in patients with PPMs, and this relationship was only in male patients.