CLINICAL APPLICATION OF QUANTITATIVE ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT OF EPICARDIAL FAT TISSUE IN OBESITY

Abstract

A historical meaning of obesity verified by body mass index as an obligatory factor for cardiovascular risk, is being refuted during recent decades by the results from epidemiological and prospective studies. The visceral obesity itself is etiopathogenetically associated with the processes of cardiovascular remodeling and development of obesity-related cardiovascular diseases. Of the methods to help better predict cardiometabolic risk in obesity the direct assessment of visceral fat tissue are known, of those the most available is echocardiographic measurement of epicardial fat thickness. In the article, the echocardiographically defined epicardial fat thickness is regarded as possible instrument for prediction of cardiovascular risk in a variety of obese patients.