Keywords:
Cardiac, Cardiovascular system, Vascular, CT-Quantitative, CT-Angiography, CT, Computer Applications-General, Arteriosclerosis, Tissue characterisation
Authors:
S. Ilic1, M. Abramovic1, Z. Badnjar2, S. Odalovic3, S. Obradovic2; 1Podgorica, Montenegro/ME, 2Podgorica/ME, 3Belgrade/RS
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-1481
Aims and objectives
Epicardial fat (EF) is the adipose tissue accumulated between the visceral fat deposit ,
located between the heart and the pericardium,
without the structure or fascia separating it from the myocardium and the epicardial vessels .
EF has a variable distribution,
being more prominent in the atrioventricular and interventricular grooves and right ventricular lateral wall.
Perivascular or pericoronary fat is adipose tissue around coronary vessels in the atrioventricular and interventricular grooves .The fat located on the outer surface of the fibrous pericardium differs from the EF in their biochemical,
molecular and vascular nutrition properties.(1)
Epicardial fat is considered to be an active endocrine organ,
which is able to synthetize and secrete adipokines and bioactive factors,
both protective ones as well as those which contribute to atherosclerosis(2).
Therefore extensive epicardial fat is thought generally to be not only a risk factor,
but also to have strong relation with severity of coronary artery disease (2,3). There are many studies in which echocardiography was used to assess the volume of epicardial fat tissue,
but CT was shown to be more accurate due to higher spatial resolution(4).
The aim of our study was to investigate not only relation of epicardial fat volume (EFV) to degree of coronary artery stenosis,
but also to compare it to effects of different pericoronary distribution of epicardial fat tissue,
using 64-multislice CT scanner.