The Effect of Epicardial Fat on the Right and Left Ventricular Function in Subjects with Various Etiological Types of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Abstract

Background: Little is known on the effect of epicardial fat in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Therefore, the present study sought to perform a comparative analysis on the influence of epicar-dial fat thickness (EFT) on the right and left ventricular function, between three different etiological varieties of pulmonary arterial hypertension: caused by congenital heart defects (atrial septum defects with left to right shunt), by systemic sclerosis, and by myocardial ischemia.

Keywords

• pulmonary arterial hypertension
• epicardial fat thickness
• systemic sclerosis
• atrial septum defects
• myocardial ischemia