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Submitted on May 16, 2005
Accepted on August 2, 2005
Endocrinology, Department of Clinical Sciences, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gianluca.iaco{at}tin.it.
Context Epicardial adipose tissue has been recently recognized as a source of bioactive molecules, as well as free fatty acids, adiponectin and inflammatory cytokines. Epicardial fat reflects intra-abdominal visceral fat and the echocardiographic assessment of this tissue is an easy and reliable marker of visceral adiposity.
Objective In this study we sought to evaluate whether the epicardial adipose tissue is related to insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in obese subjects.
Patients Thirty obese subjects (BMI > 30 kg/m2; 20 women and 10 men; mean age, 40.8 ± 11.5 yr; BMI, 43 ± 9.1 kg/m2) were included in this study. None of them was taking drugs and had history and evidences of metabolic, cardiovascular, respiratory, hepatic diseases.
Main Outcome Measures. Each subject underwent transthoracic echocardiogram to evaluate the epicardial adipose tissue thickness, euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp to estimate insulin sensitivity and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to evaluate glucose tolerance.
Results The thickness of the epicardial adipose tissue on the right ventricle varies between 4 and 17.4 mm. Echocardiographic epicardial adipose tissue size was significantly correlated with all the indices of glucose intolerance measured except for age and the 120 min plasma glucose level following an OGTT.
Conclusions Our study showed that the epicardial fat is significantly related to the obesity-related insulin resistance. This finding could be of potential interest in clinical practice and research of obesity-related risk stratification.
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