Is epicardial fat volume increased in patients with HFpEF and HFmrEF compared to controls, and is it associated with co-morbidities and biomarkers?
Epicardial fat volume is increased in HFpEF and HFmrEF patients compared to controls and correlates with myocardial injury biomarkers, atrial fibrillation, and type 2 diabetes.
AIMS: Adipose tissue and inflammation may play a role in the pathophysiology of patients with heart failure (HF) with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction. We therefore investigated epicardial fat in patients with HF with preserved (HFpEF) and mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF), and related this to co-morbidities, plasma biomarkers and cardiac structure. METHODS AND RESULTS: , P =0.001, respectively). Creatine kinase-MB, troponin T and glycated haemoglobin in patients with HF were positively correlated with epicardial fat volume (R =0.37, P =0.006; R =0.35, P =0.01; and R =0.42, P =0.002, respectively). CONCLUSION: Heart failure patients had more epicardial fat compared to controls, despite similar body mass index. Epicardial fat volume was associated with the presence of atrial fibrillation and type 2 diabetes mellitus and with biomarkers related to myocardial injury. The clinical implications of these findings are unclear, but warrant further investigation.
Woerden et al. (Wed,) studied this question.