The relationship between different exercise conditions and pericoronary inflammation as quantified by coronary CTA in coronary artery disease

Huaze Xi; Mengyuan Jing; Qiu Sun; Yuanyuan Wang; Hao Zhu; Junlin Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25316

The relationship between different exercise conditions and pericoronary inflammation as quantified by coronary CTA in coronary artery disease

Heliyon. 2024 Feb 1;10(3):e25316. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25316. eCollection 2024 Feb 15.

Authors

Huaze Xi^{1

2

3

4}, Mengyuan Jing^{1

2

3

4}, Qiu Sun^{1

2

3

4}, Yuanyuan Wang^{1

2

3

4}, Hao Zhu^{1

2

3

4}, Junlin Zhou^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China.
² Second Clinical School, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Medical Imaging of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, China.
⁴ Gansu International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Medical Imaging Artificial Intelligence, Lanzhou, China.

Abstract

Objectives: The correlation between exercise type and intensity and coronary artery inflammation in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is unknown. Therefore, this study assessed the relationship between coronary inflammation quantified by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and exercise intensity and pattern in patients with CAD.

Materials and methods: Patients who underwent CCTA between 2019 and 2023 in the second hospital of Lanzhou University were retrospectively examined. We calculated the pericoronary fat attenuation index (FAI) on the right coronary artery (RCA) as a marker of coronary inflammation. We compared basic information, exercise status, and RCA-FAI values between the two groups, and described the relationship between different exercise durations and RCA-FAI using analysis of variance and restricted cubic splines.

Results: In total, 1222 patients were included: 774 had no CAD and 448 patients had CAD. Sex (P = 0.016; odds ratio [OR]: 0.673), high-density lipoprotein (P = 0.006; OR: 0.601), low-density lipoprotein (P = 0.001; OR. 0.762), hypertension (P = 0.000; OR: 0.762), smoking (P = 0.005; OR: 0.670), and postprandial glucose (P = 0.030; OR: 0.812), household income (P = 0.038; OR:1.117), and body mass index (P = 0.000; OR:1.084) were the risk factors for elevated RCA-FAI values in the patients with coronary artery disease group. And when the exercise modality was running and aerobics, the correlation between RCA-FAI values and exercise time showed a "U"-shaped relationship. Follow-up revealed that short periods of high-intensity exercise resulted in lower RCA-FAI values.

Conclusion: RCA-FAI was significantly associated with coronary artery inflammation. Although appropriate physical activity reduced the risk of pericoronary inflammation and coronary atherosclerosis, overly prolonged exercise could exacerbate the coronary inflammatory response and increase the likelihood of CAD.

Keywords: Coronary computed tomography angiography; Coronary heart disease; Exercise intensity; Pericoronary fat attenuation index.