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. 2017 May 10;4(1):4-12.
doi: 10.14744/nci.2017.74508. eCollection 2017.

Echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness measurement: A new screening test for subclinic atherosclerosis in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases

Kamil Ozdil  1 , Zuhal Caliskan  1 , Nursen Keles  2 , Oguzhan Ozturk  1 , Ahmet Selami Tekin  2 , Resul Kahraman  1 , Levent Doganay  1 , Kenan Demircioglu  2 , Yusuf Yilmaz  2 , Mustafa Caliskan  2
Affiliations

Echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness measurement: A new screening test for subclinic atherosclerosis in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases

Kamil Ozdil et al. North Clin Istanb. .

Abstract

Objective: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) consist of a number of chronic inflammatory diseases. Inflammatory process is known to be involved in all stages of atherosclerosis. Early atherosclerosis is reflected by increased levels of carotid artery intima media thickness (c-IMT) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). Epicardial fat thickness (EFT) strongly influences both the formation and progression of atherosclerosis. Recent studies have demonstrated a relationship between c-IMT and hs-CRP levels and the risk of atherosclerosis in patients with IBD. However, no study has yet compared EFT between patients with IBD and the general healthy population. Hence, this study was designed to further evaluate whether patients with IBD have higher EFT values with increased c-IMT and hs-CRP levels compared to those in the healthy population.

Methods: A total of 110 patients with IBD and 105 healthy volunteers were enrolled into this study. EFT was evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography. c-IMT levels were measured using an ultrasound scanner with a linear probe. The plasma levels of hs-CRP were measured using a highly sensitive sandwich ELISA technique.

Results: The hs-CRP and c-IMT levels of patients with IBD were significantly higher than those of the control group. The EFT values of patients with IBD were significantly higher than those of the control group (0.54±0.13 vs. 0.49±0.09, p=0.002).

Conclusion: Echocardiographic EFT measurements of patients with IBD were significantly higher than those of the normal population, which may be associated with an increased subclinical atherosclerosis risk in these patients.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease; atherosclerosis; carotid intima-media thickness; epicardial fat thickness; high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Comparison of hs-CRP levels of the study groups.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Comparison of c-IMT values of the study groups.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Comparison of EFT values of the study groups.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Correlation between EFT and c-IMT of the study population.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Correlation between EFT and hs-CRP of the study population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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