To evaluate the thickness of epicardial fat by 2-D echocardiography and its correlation with various parameters of metabolic syndrome

Introduction: There is increase in prevalence of metabolic syndrome in younger population in India. Epicardial fat is one of the components of visceral adipose tissue. There is little evidence to suggest that the extent of epicardial fat is strongly related to overall adiposity. The relationship between epicardial fat and metabolic syndrome is still unexplored. Hence the hypothesis of the study is to evaluate whether epicardial adipose tissue is related to anthropometric, clinical and biochemical parameters of metabolic syndrome. Materials and Methods: The present study is a case control study which included 66 subjects- 33 cases (patients who fulfilled the NCEP ATP III criteria for metabolic syndrome) and 33 Controls. Detailed clinical history and physical examination (including blood pressure, height, weight, waist/hip circumference) along with biochemical examination (blood glucose, HbA1C, HOMA IR, serum insulin levels, fasting lipid profile) was done. Each subject underwent transthoracic two dimensional M-mode echocardiogram in left lateral decubitus position on Philips Sonos 5500 echocardiography machine to evaluate epicardial fat thickness. Results: In our study we found a strong positive correlation between the epicardial fat thickness and the following parameters in patients of metabolic syndrome: BMI: r = 0.52, p =0.02; HOMA IR; r = 0.58, p =< 0.001; FPG; r = 0.79, p =< 0.00; HbA1c, r = 0.59, p =<0.001; Triglyceride levels; r = 0.75, p =< 0.001. Conclusion: Our study show a positive correlation with body mass index, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose HBA1c, HOMA IR and Serum triglyceride level with epicardial fat thickness. We suggest that echocardiographic epicardial adipose tissue could be applied as an easy and reliable imaging indicator of cardiometabolic risk.