Association of perivascular fat attenuation on computed tomography and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

Heart failure with a preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is associated with chronic inflammation. We aimed to investigate the association between pericoronary adipose tissue attenuation (PCATA) on coronary computed tomography angiography as a novel noninvasive marker of pericoronary inflammation and the presence of HFpEF.

This retrospective study included 607 outpatients (median age, 65 years; 50% male) who underwent both echocardiography and coronary computed tomography angiography. Patients with obstructive coronary artery disease were excluded from this study. PCATA was compared between patients with and without HFpEF, which was diagnosed according to the Heart Failure Association (HFA)-PEFF score. PCATA was assessed at the proximal 40-mm segments of all three major coronary arteries on coronary computed tomography angiography. Patients with HFpEF had higher PCATA in all coronary arteries compared to the control participants: left anterior descending artery (LAD), -65.2 ± 6.9 Hounsfield units (HU) vs. -68.1 ± 6.7 HU; left circumflex artery (LCX), -62.7 ± 6.8 HU vs. -65.4 ± 6.6 HU; and right coronary artery (RCA), -63.6 ± 8.5 HU vs. -65.5 ± 7.7 HU (P < 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis, including conventional risk factors, revealed that PCATA per standard deviation in the LAD (odds ratio [OR], 1.449; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.152-1.823), LCX (OR, 1.634; 95% CI, 1.283-2.081), and RCA (OR, 1.388; 95% CI, 1.107-1.740) were independently associated with HFpEF. The association between PCATA and HFpEF was mostly consistent across various patient clinical characteristics. The left ventricular mass and left atrial volume index showed a mild correlation with LAD-PCATA (ρ = 0.13 [P < 0.01] and ρ = 0.24 [P < 0.01]) and LCX-PCATA (ρ = 0.16 [P < 0.01] and ρ = 0.23 [P < 0.01]).

High PCATA score was significantly associated with the presence of HFpEF. Our results suggest that inflammation in the pericoronary artery adipose tissue is one of the underlying mechanisms of HFpEF.