Epicardial fat: a new cardiometabolic risk marker, a new therapeutic goal in obese patients

Abstract

Epicardial fat (EF) is thought to be a cardiovascular risk factor, it has attracted a great interest from researchers and is relevant to study. The article presents a review on EF influence on cardiovascular system and metabolic parameters, as well as new therapeutic approaches to modify EF volume. There are no established methods for EF parameters measurement at present. The use of transthoracic echocardiography which is a simple, accessible, and informative procedure is suggested as one of these methods

Keywords

• epicardial fat
• obesity
• computer tomography heart imaging
• epicardial fat thickness
• cardiovascular risk