People who have thinner legs have an increased risk of suffering heart failure after experiencing cardiac arrest, a new study has found.
Although a lot of people are self-conscious about their thick thighs, having them is actually a healthy sign.
Researchers in this landmark study have said a heart attack, known medically as myocardial infarction, is in fact the most common cause of heart failure - given around six to nine per cent of heart attack patients go on to have one.
READ MORE: The sign on your ankles that could indicate heart disease
Previously research showed having strong quadriceps is associated with a lower risk of death in patients with coronary artery disease, the Mirror reports.
However, this new study looked at the possibility that leg strength is associated with a lower risk of developing heart failure after acute myocardial infarction.
To undertake this study, researchers looked at the maximal quadriceps strength of 932 patients hospitalised between 2007 to 2020 with an average age of 66 and with acute myocardial infarction who did not have heart failure prior to their admission and did not develop heart failure complications during their hospital stay.
To test leg strength, patients sat on a chair and contracted their quadriceps muscles as hard as possible for five seconds with a handheld dynamometer attached to the ankle recording the maximum value in kilos with the measurement performed on each leg and the researchers used the average of both values.
Strength was expressed relative to body weight, meaning that quadriceps strength in kilos was divided by body weight in kilos and multiplied by 100 for a percentage body weight value.
Patients were classified as 'high' or 'low' strength according to whether their value was above or below the median for their sex.
The median value for women was 33 per cent body weight and the median value for men was 52 per cent body weight and a total of 451 patients had low quadriceps strength and 481 had high strength.
During an average follow-up of four-and-a-half years, 67 patients (7.2 per cent) developed heart failure. The incidence of heart failure was 10.2 per 1,000 person-years in patients with high quadriceps strength and 22.9 per 1,000 person-years in those with low strength.
The Japanese researchers analysed the association between quadriceps strength and the risk of developing heart failure.
Compared with low quadriceps strength, a high strength level was associated with a 41 per cent lower risk of developing heart failure.
The research team also found that each five per cent body weight increment in quadriceps strength was associated with an 11 per cent lower likelihood of heart failure.
Study author Kensuke Ueno, a physical therapist at Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, said: "Quadriceps strength is easy and simple to measure accurately in clinical practice.
"Our study indicates that quadriceps strength could help to identify patients at a higher risk of developing heart failure after myocardial infarction who could then receive more intense surveillance."
He added: "The findings need to be replicated in other studies, but they do suggest that strength training involving the quadriceps muscles should be recommended for patients who have experienced a heart attack to prevent heart failure."
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