Epicardial fat volume is correlated with coronary lesion and its severity

To evaluate the correlation of epicardial adipose tissue volume (EATV) with the coronary artery lesion and its severity.

Inpatients with suspicious stable angina of coronary heart lesion were recruited. For patients with coronary artery lesions in CTA, further coronary angiography (CAG) was performed to evaluate the coronary artery lesion. Gensini scoring system was employed to assess the severity of coronary artery lesions.

Patients were classified as coronary heart disease (CHD) group (n = 160). Results showed the mean EATV was 192.57 ± 30.32 cm(3) in CHD group, which was significantly larger than that in control group (138.56 ± 23.18 cm(3); P < 0.01). The coronary artery stenosis was classified as mild, moderate and severe stenosis according to the extent of coronary artery lesions, and results showed marked difference in the EATV among patients with different severities of coronary artery stenosis (P < 0.005). The Gensini score was positively related to EATV (r = 0.285, P = 0.000). The EATV increased with the increase in the number of affected coronary arteries. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed EATV was an independent risk factor of CHD after adjusting other confounding factors (OR = 1.023, P = 0.013).

EATV is closely related to the severity of coronary artery lesions: the larger the EATV, the more severe the coronary artery lesions. Moreover, EATV is an independent risk factor of CHD.