Bariatric Surgery May Improve Coronary Atherosclerosis

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 27 - Gastric bypass surgery appears to have beneficial effect on inflammatory, functional, and structural markers of coronary artery disease, researchers report in the November 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The finding, senior investigator Dr. J. Ronald Mikolich told Reuters Health "suggests that gastric bypass surgery is not just a cosmetic procedure for fat people, but a procedure that measurably reduces biomarkers for coronary atherosclerosis, the most common cause of death in the United States."

Dr. Mikolich and colleagues at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Youngstown came to this conclusion after studying 50 patients who had undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery after failed attempts at medical weight loss.

Prior to surgery, all had a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more or a BMI from 35 to 40 along with at least 2 obesity-related conditions.

At 2 years after the procedure, mean BMI fell from 47 to 29.5, mean carotid intima-media thickness fell from 0.84 to 0.50 mm and mean flow-mediated dilation improved from 6.0% to 14.9%.

In addition, mean high-sensitivity C-reactive protein decreased from 1.23 to 0.65 mg/dL at 6 months and to 0.35 mg/dL at 2 years.

"Also," continued Dr. Mikolich, "an unanticipated finding was a decrease in use of anti-hypertension and lipid-lowering medications following gastric bypass surgery."

As well as prompting significant improvements in coronary atherosclerosis, concluded Dr. Mikolich, "These data may have implications for insurance coverage of the procedure."