Epicardial Adipose Tissue: A Novel Potential Imaging Marker of Comorbidities Caused by Chronic Inflammation

Abstract

The observation of correlations between obesity and chronic metabolic and cardiovascular diseases has led to the emergence of strong interests in “adipocyte biology”, in particular in relation to a specific visceral adipose tissue that is the epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and its pro-inflammatory role. In recent years, different imaging techniques frequently used in daily clinical practice have tried to obtain an EAT quantification. We provide a useful update on comorbidities related to chronic inflammation typical of cardiac adiposity, analyzing how the EAT assessment could impact and provide data on the patient prognosis. We assessed for eligibility 50 papers, with a total of 10,458 patients focusing the review on the evaluation of EAT in two main contexts: cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Given its peculiar properties and rapid responsiveness, EAT could act as a marker to investigate the basal risk factor and follow-up conditions. In the future, EAT could represent a therapeutic target for new medications. The assessment of EAT should become part of clinical practice to help clinicians to identify patients at greater risk of developing cardiovascular and/or metabolic diseases and to provide information on their clinical and therapeutic outcomes.