title: Pericardial fat and echocardiographic measures of cardiac abnormalities: the Jackson Heart Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pericardial adipose tissue (PAT), a regional fat depot adjacent to the myocardium, may mediate the complex relation between obesity and cardiac left ventricular (LV) abnormalities. We sought to evaluate the association of PAT with echocardiographic measures of LV abnormalities in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1,414 African Americans (35% men; mean age 58 years) from the JHS underwent computed tomographic assessment of PAT and abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) from 2007 to 2009 and echocardiography examination between 2000 and 2004. Echocardiographic measures of left atrial (LA) internal diameter, LV mass, LV ejection fraction (LVEF), and E-wave velocity-to-A-wave velocity ratio (E/A ratio) were examined in relation to PAT, VAT, BMI, and waist circumference (WC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  All adiposity measures were positively correlated with LA diameter and LV mass and negatively correlated with E/A ratio (P = 0.02 to 0.0001) and were not with LVEF (P = 0.36-0.61). In women, per 1-SD increment of PAT, we observed association with higher LV mass (9.0 ± 1.7 gm, P = 0.0001) and LA diameter (1.0 ± 0.1 mm, P = 0.0001). However, the magnitude of the association between PAT and cardiac measures was similar compared with VAT (P = 0.65 [LV mass]; P = 0.26 [LA diameter]) and was smallercompared with BMI (P = 0.002 [LV mass]; P = 0.01 [LA diameter]) and WC (P = 0.009 [LA diameter]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PAT is correlated with echocardiographic measures of cardiac LV abnormalities, but the association is not stronger than other adiposity measures.
authors.affiliation: Jackson Heart Study, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, USA. jliu@umc.edu
authors.forename: Jiankang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Caroline S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Demarc A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hickson
authors.forename: Warren L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Jingzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: J Jeffery
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.forename: Herman A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000208:ethnology*; D010496:Pericardium; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000208:ethnology*