Heart failure & cardiomyopathies

Imaging-Derived Sarcopenic Obesity and Cardiovascular Outcomes: Insights Into Heart Failure Risk and Muscle Biology

J Am Coll CardiolPublished Cohort study with genome-wide association and transcriptomic analysis

Authors' conclusion

These results establish sarcopenic obesity as a clinically meaningful cardiovascular risk phenotype and point to viable therapeutic targets.

Study context

Population
Individuals with CMR examinations
Participants
55,768 CMR examinations
Exposure
Higher vs lower sarcopenic obesity index
Outcome
Outcomes per higher sarcopenic obesity index
Methodological detailsdeep learning, CMR-derived
  • Deep learning
  • CMR-derived

Main finding

As reported in the abstract

Higher sarcopenic obesity indexHazard ratio (95% CI)
Incident HF
1.31(1.16–1.49)
CV death
1.51(1.25–1.81)
All-cause mortality
1.37(1.26–1.49)

Per higher sarcopenic obesity index, as printed

Observational data: associations, not effects.

Further findings

Genome-wide association analysis

Loci identified for sarcopenic obesity
16
Loci included HF and nonischemic cardiomyopathy genes; colocalization implicated shared causal variants in HF

Transcriptomic profiling of skeletal muscle

Sarcopenic obesity loci specifically modulated during muscle atrophy; ACVR2B (bimagrumab target) identified

Original publication

Imaging-Derived Sarcopenic Obesity and Cardiovascular Outcomes: Insights Into Heart Failure Risk and Muscle Biology. J Am Coll Cardiol. Published 1 July 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2026.05.022

Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →

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