title: Relationship between abdominal visceral fat and lacunar infarcts in Japanese men.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The relationship between abdominal visceral fat accumulation and lacunar infarcts has not been previously investigated in Japanese men.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The subjects were 637 middle-aged (40-64 years) and 222 elderly (65-79 years) men who participated in a health checkup program from 1999 to 2003. The association between lacunar infarcts identified by magnetic resonance imaging and cardiovascular risk factors, including abdominal visceral fat accumulation evaluated by computed tomography, was examined. The prevalence of lacunar infarcts was 4.9%. Hypertension was associated with lacunar infarcts among both the middle-aged men [age-adjusted odds ratio (OR)=2.9 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1-7.8)] and the elderly men [OR=5.1 (95%CI: 1.4-19.0)]. Abdominal visceral fat accumulation was slightly associated with lacunar infarcts among middle-aged men, but not among elderly men: OR in the highest (>or=117 cm(2)) vs lowest (<or=83 cm(2)) tertiles of fat area was 2.6 (95%CI: 0.9-7.6) for middle-aged men. Extreme accumulation of visceral fat (>or=143 cm(2)) was still slightly associated with lacunar infarcts after adjustment for age, hypertension, drinking and smoking among middle-aged men [OR=2.7 (95%CI: 0.8-9.1)].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This cross-sectional study suggests that abdominal visceral fat accumulation is a possible risk factor of lacunar infarcts, in addition to hypertension, in middle-aged Japanese men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology for Community Health and Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan. jnagura@hsp.ncvc.go.jp
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nagura
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyanaga
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: Kyohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ozasa
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014781:Viscera