Early Weight Loss Independent Effects of Sleeve Gastrectomy on Diet-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction in Obese, Wistar Rats.

Introduction: Several reports suggest that bariatric surgery significantly improves cardiac function in patients with obesity cardiomyopathy. The mechanism is unknown but may be due to weight-loss independent factors. We predict that the changes in gastrointestinal anatomy after a rodent model of sleeve gastrectomy (SG) will have weight-loss independent effects on cardiac dysfunction.