Prognostic Role Of Epicardial Adipose Tissue Thickness In STEMI Patients Treated With Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is suggested to play an important role as a marker of development of cardiovascular disease.
Purpose: To determine predictive value of EAT thickness in patients with STEMI after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Methods: Retrospective study of STEMI patients treated with PCI 2014-2016. EAT thickness was measured from transthoracic echocardiography at end-diastole. Patients were divided in two groups according to median: thin EAT group (<2.27mm, n=270) and thick EAT group (≥2.27mm, n=223).
Results: Total 492 patients (332 males, 66.62±12.24 year-old) were enrolled. Killip class ≥III was more frequent (17.6 vs. 10.3%, p=0.02) in thicker EAT group. Univariate analysis revealed that higher body mass index (BMI) (β=0.064, p=0.002), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ≤1mmol/l (β=0.575, p=0.008), male gender (β=0.426, p=0.046) and severe (≥2 affected vessels) coronary artery disease (CAD) (β=0.725, p=0.001) were associated with thicker EAT. Results of multivariate regression are demonstrated in table.
Conclusions: Higher BMI, decreased HDL-C, increased LDL-C and male gender are an independent predictors of thicker EAT. Thicker EAT is related with severe CAD, impairment of left ventricular function (according to Killip) and increased risk of recurrent MI in STEMI patients.