Association between osteosarcopenia and coronary artery calcification in asymptomatic individuals

Abstract

Abstract Osteoporosis and sarcopenia are substantially interrelated with shared cardiovascular risk factors. However, the relationship between osteosarcopenia and coronary artery disease is largely unexplored. We aimed to investigate the association between osteosarcopenia and coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores in asymptomatic adults. A total of 5969 asymptomatic adults without cardiovascular disease who underwent a health examination including estimation of CAC scores by cardiac tomography were analyzed. Osteoporosis was defined as low bone mineral density T-score ≤ − 2.5 standard deviation, and sarcopenia as appendicular skeletal muscle mass 0 (odds ratio [OR] 2.868; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.717–4.790). Furthermore, subjects with osteosarcopenia had a significant risk of moderate-to-extensive CAC (CAC score ≥ 100) (OR 2.709; 95% CI 1.128–6.505). We demonstrated that osteosarcopenia was independently associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. Our results suggest osteosarcopenia as a predisposing factor for coronary heart disease.