Correlation Between Epicardial Fat Volume Assessed by 128-multidetector Computed Tomography and the Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Amitkumar Sharma, DNB Cardiology1 ; Ramnath V. Iyer, DNB Cardiology1 ; Srikanth Sola, FACC1 1Department of Cardiology, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prashanthi gram, Puttaparthi, Anantapur-515134, Andhra Pradesh, India

Although a modest relationship was found between epicardial fat volume (EFV) and the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD), the relationship between serial changes in EFV and increase in the severity of CAD has not yet been investigated. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between EFV and the severity of CAD.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in India between January 2016 and January 2017. In total, 100 patients with chronic stable angina underwent multidetector computed tomography (CT) assessment of coronary lesions and EFV. Coronary angiograms were obtained for each coronary vessel in ≥ 2 projections. Coronary calcium score (CS) and the severity of CAD were quantified using the Agatston score method and Gensini score, respectively. In the axial slices used for CS, threshold attenuation values of −30 to −250 Hounsfield units (HU) were applied to identify EFV. respectively. Although EFV and Gensini score had no significant difference in patients with or without hypertension and tobacco chewing, they were significantly higher in patients with diabetes (p = 0.001 and p = 0.001) and dyslipidemia (p = 0.001 and p = 0.001) than in those without these risk factors. After multivariate regression analysis, increased EFV was found to be an independent predictor of the severity of CAD, as assessed by Gensini score (p = 0.001).

There is a good correlation between EFV and the severity of CAD, and increased volumes of EFV are associated with other biomarkers of disease severity, such as coronary CS.