<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><bold>Background:</bold> Epicardial fat has been recently identified as a major player in the development of the atherosclerotic process.<bold>Study aim:</bold> The aim of this study was to correlate the epicardial fat volume (EFV), determined by Multisclice CT, and the severity of the coronary lesions, expressed by the Coronary Calcium Score (CCS) and Syntax Score (SxS) in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD).<bold>Material and methods:</bold> One-hundred-twenty-six patients underwent Multisclice 64 CT assessment of coronary lesions and epicardial fat quantification. Calculation of CCS was performed on all the three coronary vessels and was followed by determination of SxS according to guidelines. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – patients with CCS >400 (n = 26), and Group 2 — patients with CaS &lt;400 (n = 100).<bold>Results:</bold> The mean age of the study population was 65.32 years for Group 1 and 54 years for Group 2 (p &lt;0.0001). However, patients >65 years of age had a high CCS in a more significant extent than younger patients (50% in Group 1 vs. 17% in Group 2, p = 0.0115). Female gender was recorded in 48% of cases in Group 2 and in 19% of cases in Group 1 (p = 0.008). Several factors were identified in a higher extent in the group with high CCS as compared with the group with low CCS, such as the presence of significant stenosis (>50%) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) (46% vs. 9%, p &lt;0.0001), the presence of multi-vessel coronary disease (50% vs. 5%, p &lt;0.0001) and a high SxS, above 23 (23% vs. 4%, p = 0.006). The epicardial fat volume was 117.81 ± 40.4 ml (95% CI: 97.98–138.2 ml) in Group 2 and 89.77 ± 37.7 ml (95% CI: 80.4–101.5 ml) in Group 1 (p = 0.0033).<bold>Conclusions:</bold> Epicardial fat volume could represent a new imaging-derived biomarker, useful for classification of the severity of coronary artery disease, increased values of EFV being associated with other biomarkers of disease severity, such as calcium score.</abstract>

Background: Epicardial fat has been recently identified as a major player in the development of the atherosclerotic process.Study aim: The aim of this study was to correlate the epicardial fat volume (EFV), determined by Multisclice CT, and the severity of the coronary lesions, expressed by the Coronary Calcium Score (CCS) and Syntax Score (SxS) in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD).Material and methods: One-hundred-twenty-six patients underwent Multisclice 64 CT assessment of coronary lesions and epicardial fat quantification. Calculation of CCS was performed on all the three coronary vessels and was followed by determination of SxS according to guidelines. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – patients with CCS >400 (n = 26), and Group 2 — patients with CaS <400 (n = 100).Results: The mean age of the study population was 65.32 years for Group 1 and 54 years for Group 2 (p <0.0001). However, patients >65 years of age had a high CCS in a more significant extent than younger patients (50% in Group 1 vs. 17% in Group 2, p = 0.0115). Female gender was recorded in 48% of cases in Group 2 and in 19% of cases in Group 1 (p = 0.008). Several factors were identified in a higher extent in the group with high CCS as compared with the group with low CCS, such as the presence of significant stenosis (>50%) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) (46% vs. 9%, p <0.0001), the presence of multi-vessel coronary disease (50% vs. 5%, p <0.0001) and a high SxS, above 23 (23% vs. 4%, p = 0.006). The epicardial fat volume was 117.81 ± 40.4 ml (95% CI: 97.98–138.2 ml) in Group 2 and 89.77 ± 37.7 ml (95% CI: 80.4–101.5 ml) in Group 1 (p = 0.0033).Conclusions: Epicardial fat volume could represent a new imaging-derived biomarker, useful for classification of the severity of coronary artery disease, increased values of EFV being associated with other biomarkers of disease severity, such as calcium score.

Correlations Between Severity of Coronary Lesions and Epicardial Fat Volume in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease – a Multislice CT-based Study

Clinic of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania

Center of Advanced Research in Multimodality Cardiac Imaging, Cardio Med Medical Center, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania

Journal of Interdisciplinary Medicine

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Background: Epicardial fat has been recently identified as a major player in the development of the atherosclerotic process.Study aim: The aim of this study was to correlate the epicardial fat volume (EFV), determined by Multisclice CT, and the severity of the coronary lesions, expressed by the Coronary Calcium Score (CCS) and Syntax Score (SxS) in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD).Material and methods: One-hundred-twenty-six patients underwent Multisclice 64 CT assessment of coronary lesions and epicardial fat quantification. Calculation of CCS was performed on all the three coronary vessels and was followed by determination of SxS according to guidelines. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – patients with CCS >400 (n = 26), and Group 2 — patients with CaS 65 years of age had a high CCS in a more significant extent than younger patients (50% in Group 1 vs. 17% in Group 2, p = 0.0115). Female gender was recorded in 48% of cases in Group 2 and in 19% of cases in Group 1 (p = 0.008). Several factors were identified in a higher extent in the group with high CCS as compared with the group with low CCS, such as the presence of significant stenosis (>50%) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) (46% vs. 9%, p <0.0001), the presence of multi-vessel coronary disease (50% vs. 5%, p <0.0001) and a high SxS, above 23 (23% vs. 4%, p = 0.006). The epicardial fat volume was 117.81 ± 40.4 ml (95% CI: 97.98–138.2 ml) in Group 2 and 89.77 ± 37.7 ml (95% CI: 80.4–101.5 ml) in Group 1 (p = 0.0033).Conclusions: Epicardial fat volume could represent a new imaging-derived biomarker, useful for classification of the severity of coronary artery disease, increased values of EFV being associated with other biomarkers of disease severity, such as calcium score.

Background: Epicardial fat has been recently identified as a major player in the development of the atherosclerotic process.Study aim: The aim of this study...

Correlations Between Severity of Coronary Lesions and Epicardial Fat Volume in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease – a Multislice CT-based Study

Published Online: Jul 06, 2016

Page range: 71 - 78

Received: Apr 14, 2016

Accepted: May 15, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jim-2016-0014

Keywords
epicardial fat volume, coronary artery disease, Multisclice CT, Calcium Score, Syntax Score

© 2016 Roxana Hodaş et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Correlations Between Severity of Coronary Lesions and Epicardial Fat Volume in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease – a Multislice CT-based Study

Published Online: Jul 06, 2016

Page range: 71 - 78

Received: Apr 14, 2016

Accepted: May 15, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jim-2016-0014

Keywordsepicardial fat volume, coronary artery disease, Multisclice CT, Calcium Score, Syntax Score

© 2016 Roxana Hodaş et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
epicardial fat volume, coronary artery disease, Multisclice CT, Calcium Score, Syntax Score