Tape measure, not scale, key to knowing heart risk

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A quick check around the waist with a tape measure may be a better way of telling if you are at risk of heart disease than stepping on a scale, researchers said on Monday.

Even if people are not overweight, those with larger waistlines are more likely to show the early signs of heart disease than those with smaller waists, the team at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas reported.

"Inches are as important as pounds," Dr. James de Lemos, a cardiologist who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Writing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers said they have started a long-term study of 2,744 people with a median age of 45.

They used magnetic resonance imaging and electron beam computed tomography scans to look for early signs of clogged arteries and found a direct relationship between waist size and early indications of heart disease, regardless of the patients' overall weight.

"It's a straight-line relationship all the way down to the lowest levels," de Lemos said.

"This isn't the kind of thing that is only relevant if you are one of the obese people."

Several studies have shown waist size is clearly linked with heart attack, stroke and heart disease risk. U.S. government guidelines now say men should aim to have a waist 40 inches in circumference or less -- 35 inches for a woman.