Pericardial fat predicts riskof coronary artery disease

The presence and amount of fat around the heart could be an independent risk marker for coronary artery disease.

Researchers at Korea University Guro Hospital in Seoul first established a correlation between pericardial adipose tissue and coronary atherosclerosis. Their cardiac CT angiography study of 165 chest pain patients with normal body mass showed those who developed coronary artery plaque had a significantly larger area of pericardial fat compared with those with normal scans. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina made a similar discovery in a study of 129 chest pain patients who underwent CTA and conventional angiography. They found a strong correlation between signs of disease and relatively high amounts of epicardial or intrathoracic fat volumes. They released findings at the 2008 RSNA meeting.