DOES ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC EPICARDIAL FAT THICKNESS ASSOCIATE WITH THE SEVERITY OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE?

Abstract

SUMMARY C oronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major health problems throughout the world. It is a frequent and important cause of morbidity and mortality. The worldwide CAD mortality rate is expected to rise from 28.9% in the 1990s to an estimated 36.3% in the 2020s. Data suggests that among the 10 leading causes of death in the world, ischemic heart disease topped the list as 7.4 million people in 2012 died with ischemic heart disease. This study was conducted on 200 individuals admitted at Ain Shams University Hospitals during the period from June 2013 to October 2014. The age of patients ranged from 38 to 78 years old. They were 138 males (69.0%) and 62 (31%) females. Seventy eight patients were smokers (39%), one hundred and four patients were diabetic (52%), and one hundred and twenty two patients were hypertensive (61%). Out of 200 patients in the study, fifty eight patients (29%) were found to have BMI ≥ 30, seventy five patients (37.5%) had serum LDL levels ≥ 160 mg/dl and one hundred and fourteen patients (57%) were found to have serum levels TGs levels ≥ 150 mg/dl. One hundred and twenty eight patients (64%), out of 200 patients who underwent CA, were found to have significant CAD, while the remaining seventy two patients (36%) were found to have normal coronaries. In the current study, diabetic, hypertensive and smoker patients had more significant EAT when compared to non-diabetic, non-hypertensive and non-smoker ones. EATT measured during both systole and diastole was found to be significant (P-value < 0.001) in patients with BMI ≥ 30 compared to corresponding values of normal BMI. There was also a positive correlation between EATT measured in both systole & diastole and WHR. On measuring EATT during both systole and diastole, it was found that p-value was significant (< 0.001) in patients with high levels of serum LDL & TGs compared to corresponding values in persons with normal levels of serum LDL and TGs. There was also a positive correlation between EATT and age. EAT was highly significant in patients with coronary affection (P-value = 0.000) with mean sEATT in CAD patients was 6.07 ± 1.16 SD compared to 4.22 ± 0.90SD in patients with normal coronaries and mean dEATT in CAD patients was 5.77 ± 1.13 compared to 4.02 ± 0.90 in patients with normal coronaries. Also, there was a significant correlation (p-value < 0.001)