title: Epicardial Adipose Tissue Is Increased in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have high cardiovascular morbidity, and, in general, epicardial adipose tissue thickness is related to atherosclerotic vascular disease. This study aimed to investigate the association between epicardial adipose tissue thickness and carotid intima-media thickness as markers of early atherosclerosis in patients with IBD.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study comprised 47 patients with IBD (25 with Crohn disease and 22 with ulcerative colitis) and 35 control participants. In all individuals, epicardial adipose tissue and carotid intima-media thickness values were measured by sonography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age ± SD of the 47 patients with IBD was 42.3 ± 11.2 years, versus 41.4 ± 10.1 years for the control group. The epicardial adipose tissue thickness was higher in both the Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis groups compared to the control group (P < .001), but not the carotid intima-media thickness (P = .695 and .917, respectively). There was a strong positive correlation between the carotid intima-media and epicardial adipose tissue thickness values in the Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis groups (r = 0.757; 95% confidence interval, 0.711-0.901; r = 0.786; 95% confidence interval, 0.364-0.615; both P < .001). However, there was no significant difference between the patients who were in the active and inactive disease periods in both groups in terms of carotid intima-media and epicardial adipose tissue thickness values.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that epicardial adipose tissue thickness might be a marker for detection of early atherosclerosis in patients with IBD. There was a strong positive correlation between carotid intima-media thickness and epicardial adipose tissue thickness values in the patients with IBD. However, there was no correlation between IBD activity and carotid intima-media or epicardial adipose tissue thickness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey afatmauysal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fatma
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Uysal
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erdem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Akbal
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayla
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akbal
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sibel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cevizci
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Kasım
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arık
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazi
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D010496:Pericardium / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: Crohn disease; carotid intima-media thickness; disease activity; epicardial adipose tissue; general and abdominal ultrasound; inflammatory bowel disease; sonography; ulcerative colitis