Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Apr;30(7):850-6.
doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehn573. Epub 2009 Jan 9.

Association of pericardial fat, intrathoracic fat, and visceral abdominal fat with cardiovascular disease burden: the Framingham Heart Study

Amir A Mahabadi  1 , Joseph M Massaro, Guido A Rosito, Daniel Levy, Joanne M Murabito, Philip A Wolf, Christopher J O'Donnell, Caroline S Fox, Udo Hoffmann
Affiliations

Association of pericardial fat, intrathoracic fat, and visceral abdominal fat with cardiovascular disease burden: the Framingham Heart Study

Amir A Mahabadi et al. Eur Heart J. 2009 Apr.

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess whether pericardial fat, intrathoracic fat, and visceral abdominal adipose tissue (VAT) are associated with the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods and results: Participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort underwent abdominal and chest multidetector computed tomography to quantify volumes of pericardial fat, intrathoracic fat, and VAT. Relations between each fat depot and CVD were assessed using logistic regression. The analysis of 1267 participants (mean age 60 years, 53.8% women, 9.7% with prevalent CVD) demonstrated that pericardial fat [odds ratio (OR) 1.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11-1.57; P = 0.002] and VAT (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.11-1.57; P = 0.003), but not intrathoracic fat (OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.93-1.39; P = 0.22), were significantly associated with prevalent CVD in age-sex-adjusted models and after adjustment for body mass index and waist circumference. After multivariable adjustment, associations were attenuated (P > 0.14). Only pericardial fat was associated with prevalent myocardial infarction after adjusting for conventional measures of adiposity (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.03-1.82; P = 0.03).

Conclusion: Pericardial fat and VAT, but not intrathoracic fat, are associated with CVD independent of traditional measures of obesity but not after further adjustment for traditional risk factor. Taken together with our prior work, these findings may support the hypothesis that pericardial fat contributes to coronary atherosclerosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pericardial fat and intrathoracic fat in an axial image, showing that the pericardial sac was defined as the border between pericardial and intrathoracic fat (A) and three-dimensional reconstructions of pericardial fat (B) and total thoracic fat (C). Intrathoracic fat was calculated by subtracting pericardial fat from total thoracic fat. For this subject, pericardial fat volume was 153 cm3, intrathoracic fat volume was 287 cm3, and VAT volume was 1865 cm3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, McDowell MA, Tabak CJ, Flegal KM. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999–2004. JAMA. 2006;295:1549–1555. - PubMed
    1. Poirier P, Giles TD, Bray GA, Hong Y, Stern JS, Pi-Sunyer FX, Eckel RH. Obesity and cardiovascular disease: pathophysiology, evaluation, and effect of weight loss: an update of the 1997 American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Obesity and Heart Disease from the Obesity Committee of the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism. Circulation. 2006;113:898–918. - PubMed
    1. Despres JP, Lemieux I. Abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome. Nature. 2006;444:881–887. - PubMed
    1. Snijder MB, Dekker JM, Visser M, Bouter LM, Stehouwer CD, Yudkin JS, Heine RJ, Nijpels G, Seidell JC. Trunk fat and leg fat have independent and opposite associations with fasting and postload glucose levels: the Hoorn study. Diabetes Care. 2004;27:372–377. - PubMed
    1. Poirier P, Despres JP. Waist circumference, visceral obesity, and cardiovascular risk. J Cardiopulm Rehabil. 2003;23:161–169. - PubMed