The Obese Heart

Obesity has been described as a chronic metabolicdisease, characterized by excessive adiposity.1 Mostdiscussion about the consequences and complications ofobesity revolves around metabolic dysfunction, such asdysglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and hypertension. There isalso increasing awareness about ectopic adipose tissuedeposition and its deleterious effects.2 Fatty liver, fattypancreas and fatty kidneys are terms that are usedfrequently in clinical descriptions of the disease. In spiteof the strong link between obesity and cardiac ill-health,the term ‘obese heart’ or ‘fatty heart’, however, has notfound traction in medical literature. This may be due tothe complexity of obesity’s impact on the heart. Continued...