Effect of obesity in young adults on an acoustic-based system for ruling-out coronary artery disease

Introduction: The CADScor®System is a non-invasive acoustic rule-out device used in patients with symptoms of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). The system is only validated for adults over the age of 40 and it is unknown whether obesity impact the acoustic device. This study examines if BMI influence the acoustic and clinical CAD-Scores. Furthermore, it explores whether the acoustic and clinical CAD-Scores differ between adults below versus above 40 years.

Method: A total of 147 young adults age 28-30 years and 494 adults age > 40 years without CAD were included in this study. CAD was excluded by coronary artery calcium score in the young adult group and by coronary computed tomography angiography in the adult group.

Results: This study showed an inverse relationship between the acoustic CAD-Score and BMI for both age groups. When comparing the three BMI groups a significant difference in acoustic CADscores was detected for both age groups (p<0.01;p=0.01). When comparing males in the two age groups a statistical difference in acoustic CAD-score was shown (p<0.05), however, no difference was shown for females (p=0.13). There was no significant difference in clinical CAD-Score between the BMI groups for adults nor young adults (p=0.22;p=0.21).

Conclusion: The findings indicate that in subjects without CAD, a slightly inverse relationship between acoustic CAD-Score and BMI was shown. However, this did not influence the clinical CADscore significantly. A slightly lower acoustic CAD-score was observed comparing males in the two age groups, but this trend was not observed in females.