Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity (Apr 2022)

EAT Thickness as a Predominant Feature for Evaluating Arterial Stiffness in Patients with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

  • Liu Z,
  • Hu W,
  • Zhang H,
  • Tao H,
  • Lei P,
  • Liu J,
  • Yu Y,
  • Dong Q,
  • Gao L,
  • Zhang D

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 1217 – 1226

Abstract

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Zhiqiang Liu, Weiwei Hu, Hanwen Zhang, Hongmei Tao, Peng Lei, Jie Liu, Yali Yu, Qian Dong, Lei Gao, Dongying Zhang Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Dongying Zhang; Lei Gao, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is an intricacy heterogeneous syndrome. However, the association between EAT and arterial stiffness in HFpEF patients remains unknown.Methods: A total of 102 patients were enrolled into the study, and brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity (baPWV), epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and body composition were assessed. Linear regression analysis was carried out to model the relationship between variables (especially EAT thickness) and baPWV.Results: The results showed that patients with the thicker EAT fat pad (≥ 3.55 mm) tended to have comorbidities of hypertension, coronary artery disease (CAD), diabetes and hyperlipidemia, also with a higher level of obesity, fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG). The level of baPWV was higher in EAT ≥ 3.55 mm group than the other group. BaPWV was positively associated with EAT, age, heart rate, waist circumference, visceral fat area, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, CRP and FBG. After adjusting for EAT, age and visceral fat area, EAT thickness (β = 0.256, P = 0.009) and visceral fat area (β = 0.229, P = 0.036) significantly associated with baPWV.Conclusion: The study assessed for the first time that the increased EAT thickness was closely related with baPWV in HFpEF patients, suggesting patients with the thicker EAT may be independently associated with arterial stiffness under the context of HFpEF.Keywords: HFpEF, epicardial adipose tissue, baPWV, artery stiffness

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