'Healthy' individuals may be at risk for heart disease

Ding is continuing long-term studies to investigate whether individuals with excessive fat deposited in and around organs and muscles may be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and cardiac events regardless of overall body fat.

"We know that even thin people could have excessive non-subcutaneous fat," Ding said. "If this hypothesis is confirmed, we should look for ways to specifically target the non-subcutaneous fat depot."

Co-researchers were Stephen B. Kritchevsky, Ph.D., Fang-Chi Hsu, Ph.D., Gregory L. Burke, M.D., and J. Jeffrey Carr, M.D., all of Wake Forest; Tamara B. Harris, M.D., of the National Institute on Aging; Robert C. Detrano, M.D., Ph.D., of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute; Moyses Szklo, M.D., Dr. P.H., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Michael H. Criqui, M.D., and Matthew Allison, M.D., both of the University of California's Department of Family and Preventative Medicine; Pamela Ouyang, M.B.B.S., of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Elizabeth R. Brown, Sc.D., of the University of Washington.

Media Relations Contacts: Jessica Guenzel, , (336) 716-3487; Bonnie Davis, , (336) 716-4977; or Shannon Koontz, , (336) 716-4587. If

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (www.wfubmc.edu) is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children's Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university's School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of "America's Best Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America's Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.