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Current guidelines for evaluating and managing heart failure emphasize early risk-factor detection and treatment (Journal Watch Cardiology January 25 2002). Thus, identifying modifiable risk factors in addition to those already defined (e.g., hypertension, ischemic heart disease) is of paramount importance. Researchers from the Framingham Heart Study evaluated high body-mass index (BMI) as a heart-failure risk factor and assessed whether high BMI's risk extends beyond its relation to other risk factors for heart failure.
Of 5881 subjects without heart failure at baseline, 496 developed it during follow-up (mean, 14 years). High BMI was significantly and independently associated with increased risk for heart failure. After adjustment for esta…