title: Ectopic Fat Depots and Coronary Artery Calcium in South Asians Compared With Other Racial/Ethnic Groups.
abstract: South Asians have a low body mass index and high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) relative to other racial/ethnic groups. Radiographically detected ectopic fat distribution is better associated with CVD than body mass index. We assessed whether differences in ectopic fat depots explained differences in the prevalence/severity of coronary artery calcium (CAC), a predictor of incident CVD events, among South Asians compared with other racial/ethnic groups.
  
  
  
  We examined the associations of radiographically detected visceral, intermuscular, intrahepatic, and pericardial fat with CAC among adults without baseline CVD. We compared 803 South Asians in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America to 4 racial/ethnic groups in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis: 2622 whites, 1893 blacks, 1496 Latinos, and 803 Chinese Americans. We adjusted for body mass index and known CVD risk factors. South Asians had the highest intrahepatic fat and lowest pericardial fat volume (PFV). There was a positive graded association between ectopic fat and higher CAC scores in all the groups with the strongest associations observed with PFV. PFV was independently associated with CAC severity in South Asians (P=0.01) and blacks (P=0.05) and borderline in whites (P=0.06). PFV partially explained the higher CAC burden in South Asians compared with blacks, but not the other racial/ethnic groups.
  
  
  
  Differences in PFV explain a small fraction of the higher CAC burden in South Asians. Our findings suggest that ectopic fat depots may not explain the elevated CAC risk in South Asians.
authors.affiliation: University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Sachin K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.affiliation: University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Namratha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kandula
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest University Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC.
authors.forename: Jingzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.affiliation: University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Allison
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Kiang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest University Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Herrington
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Dhananjay
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vaidya
authors.affiliation: University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vittinghoff
authors.affiliation: University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA alka.kanaya@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Alka M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kanaya
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian; D001459:Bangladesh / Q000208:ethnology; D002828:Choristoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology; D009390:Nepal / Q000208:ethnology; D010154:Pakistan / Q000208:ethnology; D010496:Pericardium / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000208:ethnology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014481:United States; D061205:Vascular Calcification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000208:ethnology*; D044465:White People
keywords: MESA (Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis); South Asian; adipose tissue; coronary artery calcification; ethnicity; pericardial fat