The relationship between epicardial fat tissue tickness as aterosclerosis marker and degenerative ( calcific) aortic valve disease

PurposeDegenerative aortic stenosis (DAS), increased prevalence with aging, is shown to be associated with inflammation and metabolic abnormalities. Epicardial fat thickness (EFT) is revealed to be associated with the severity of atherosclerosis. It?s also related to other atherosclerotic risk factors including obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia. We aimed to investigate whether DAS is related to EFT and other metabolic parameters.MethodsFiftyone consecutive patients admitted to our outpatient clinic with DAS were enrolled to this study. Age and sex matched 33 patients were selected as control group. Anthropometric measures (body mass index, weight and waist circumference) as well as serum fasting glucose and lipid levels were measured. We examined EFT at both diastole and systole by 2D echocardiography. Aortic peak flow rate (AV max), transaortic peak and mean gradient were also measured and aortic valve area index (AVAi) was calculated by Doppler echocardiography during the same examination.ResultsThere were no significant differences between study (mean age: 72.9 years, 45.1% male) and control groups (mean age:69.2 years 48.5% male) regard with anthropometric measures and clinical results except lower hemoglobin levels in study group. EFT was not found to different between study and control group (table 1). EFT was well correlated with waist circumference (r= 0.45 p<0.001). AVAi was not correlated to both systolic (r=-0.05, p= 0.62) and diastolic EFT (r=-0.03 p= 0.80).ConclusionOur observational study showed that epicardial fat thickness was associated with waist circumference. However degenerative aortic stenosis is not associated with epicardial fat thickness other metabolic parameters.