Correlation Between Epicardial Adipose Tissue and Acute Myocardial Infarction

Purpose To explore the correlation between epicardial adipose tissue(EAT) measured by echocardiography and acute myocardial infarction(AMI) as EAT is closely related with instability of coronary artery plaque.Material and Methods Thirty-eight patients with AMI were taken as AMI group and 40 patients with suspected AMI whose coronary arteriongraphy presented normal were taken as control group.All patients underwent echocardiography,and their thickness of EAT in the front of free ventricular wall was measured and compared between the two groups.Results The EAT thickness in AMI group was significantly higher than that in the control group(difference with statistic significance,t=6.471,P0.01).EAT was positive correlated with age(r=0.284,P0.05),body mass index(r =0.253,P0.05) and low-density lipoprotein(r =0.132,P0.05),but it showed negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein(r=- 0.116,P0.05).The ROC analysis demonstrated that the sensitivity and reached specificity were 81.6% and 67.5% when EAT thickness was 7.0 mm,and that area under the curve was 0.847(95% CI 0.76-0.93,P0.01).Conclusion EAT thickness grows dramatically in patients with AMI,which suggests a significant increase of EAT may be a risk factor for AMI.