title: Correlation between epicardial fat thickness by echocardiography and other parameters in obese adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally and affects people of all ages. Recent studies have shown that visceral adipose tissue measured by magnetic resonance imaging and/or computed tomography correlates positively with epicardial adipose tissue. Epicardial fat, which is correlated to several metabolic parameters, can be assessed by echocardiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate epicardial fat thickness and other metabolic parameters in obese adolescents and investigate the correlation between epicardial fat thickness and other metabolic parameters in obese adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  We selected 99 subjects, between ages 15-17 years of age, to be enrolled in this study. Sixty five obese adolescents with a body mass index (BMI) >95 percentile and 34 control subjects were included in this study. Echocardiographic measurements including epicardial fat thickness as well as anthropometric and blood pressure (BP) measurements were performed. The following parameters were estimated: blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, free fatty acid, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, leptin, adiponectin and high sensitive C reactive protein.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The obese group showed a statistically significant correlation with echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness and, BMI, waist circumference, obesity index, fat percentage, systolic BP, insulin level, leptin and adiponectin. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed epicardial fat thickness as the most significant independent parameter to correlate with obese adolescents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that epicardial fat thickness measured by echocardiography is a practical and accurate parameter for predicting visceral obesity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hae Soon
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jo Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Nam Su
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chung Il
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: Young Mi
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Hong