Epicardial adipose tissue thickness as a potential predictor of pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Our aim was to assess epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness as a potential effective screening parameter to predict PE in the first trimester.

133 women with PE were enrolled in this study, and divided into the early-onset and late-onset subgroups. 150 healthy women were enrolled as control group. Anthropometric and echocardiographic parameters were obtained, including EAT thickness. Generalized linear models was used to assess the predict efficiency of EAT with fdds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Compared to the controls, EAT thickness was higher in PE patients (P < 0.05). Multivariate regression analysis indicated that EAT thickness was associated with PE risk (OR = 1.50, 95%CI: 1.19-1.88, P < 0.05). The area under curves of EAT thickness was 0.616. When the cutoff value for EAT thickness was set to 5.26 mm, the sensitivity was 78.2% and the specificity was 44.7%. EAT thickness significantly both higher in the early-onset and late-onset groups compared to the controls; Meanwhile, EAT thickness was higher in the early-onset group than late-onset group (P < 0.05). Logistic regressionrevealed the close relationship between onset time of PE and EAT thickness (OR = 1.59, 95%CI: 1.28-1.98, P < 0.001).

Measured EAT thickness using echocardiography could identify high-risk people for PE as early as the first trimester. Echocardiographic EAT has the potential to be a predictor for PE prior to actual clinical diagnosis.