Association Between Echocardiographic Epicardial Adipose Tissue (EAT) Thickness and 1H-MRS Septal Myocardial Fat

Giovanni Di Leo¹, Alexis Malavazos, Francesco Secchi, Calin Coman, Lelio Morricone, Massimiliano Marco Corsi, Gianluca Iacobellis², Francesco Sardanelli¹

We assessed whether the epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness is associated to the septal myocardial fat (SMF). Ten obese volunteers underwent echocardiographic EAT thickness measurement, 1.5-T 1H-MRS for SMF quantification (water reference) and MRI for EAT volume estimation. Intra- and interobserver reproducibility was excellent. SMF was 1-9%, EAT volume was 5-43 mL and EAT thickness was 3-11 mm. SMF showed a high correlation with EAT thickness, EAT volume, left ventricle mass and waist circumference. In multivariate regression, the EAT thickness was the only significant covariate of the SMF. We can speculate that EAT accumulation could reflect SMF in obese individuals.