Epicardial Adipose Tissue Thickness as Useful Marker of Metabolic Syndrome in Adult Egyptian Patients

摘要

Background: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) can be thought of as multiple, interrelated risk factors of metabolic origin (Visceral obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension). Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is an emerging cardio metabolic risk factor. This study was planned to assess the association of echocardiographic EAT measurements with the presence of MetS and its components in adult Egyptian patients. Forty patients diagnosed with MetS and 20 patients with Pre-MetS as a control group were enrolled in this study. All participants were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, assessment of EAT thickness by using resting transthoracic two – dimensional (2D) echocardiography and biochemical parameters (fasting plasma glucose, insulin, HOMA IR, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), HDL-C, LDL-C, blood urea, serum creatinine, ALT and serum albumin. Results of this study revealed: EAT thickness was significantly increased in patients with MetS compared to pre-MetS patients (0.84 ± 0.22 cm VS 0.64 ± 0.17 cm, P<0.001), correlating positively with systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = 0.51; P<0.001), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (r = 0.51; p<0.001), TC (r = 0.42; p<0.001), TG (r = 0.58 p<0.001), HOMA (r = 0.53; p<0.001), and FPG (r = 0.46; p<0.05). EAT thickness correlated negatively with HDL-C level (r = - 0.4; p<0.001). Receivers operating characteristic Curve (ROC- curve) analysis revealed that EAT thickness predicted MetS with 72.5 % sensitivity and 70% specificity above the level of 0.7 cm [area under curve = 0.761; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.639- 0.88] There were highly significant difference between MetS group and pre-Mets group regarding parameters of MetS, HOMAIR (p<0.001), FPG and fasting insulin (FI) (p<0.05). Conclusion: The present study revealed significant association exist between EAT thickness and MetS components. Those finding might be used as useful marker for MetS.