{"id":5229,"date":"2025-10-18T09:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T07:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/?p=5229"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:26:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:26:05","slug":"cvja-2025-063","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2025-063\/","title":{"rendered":"Can epicardial fat tissue thickness help determine the need for coronary angiography before heart valve surgery?"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div id=\"article\">                                                                                                                        \r\n        <div id=\"title-container\">                                                                                                    \r\n        <div id=\"authors-title\">                                                                                                            \r\n        <!--Aurthors under Title-->                                                                                                            \r\n            \r\n\u00d6mer Tanyeli, \u0130lker Mercan, Mehmet I\u015f\u0131k, Y\u00fcksel Dereli, Elif Nur Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, Niyazi G\u00f6rm\u00fc\u015f\r\n        <\/div>        \r\n<\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n            <div id=\"copyright\">\r\n        <strong>Copyright:<\/strong> Clinics Cardive Publishing (Pty) Ltd. publisher\r\n        of Cardiovascular Journal of Africa.<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>                                                                                                                                \r\n        <div id=\"article-abstract\">                                                                                                            \r\n            <div id=\"abstract-title\">                                                                                                        \r\n                    Abstract                                                                                                                \r\n                <\/div>                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                \r\n            <div id=\"abstract-content\">                                                                                                        \r\n            <!--Content of Abstract Article-->                                                                                                \r\n            <!--<strong>\"Abstract titles\":<\/strong>-->                                                                                        \r\n            <!--<br\/> at the end of each section!!-->                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n        <strong>Background:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nEpicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is proposed to be a marker of cardiovascular risk. We aimed to evaluate the association of EAT with the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with valvular heart disease.\r\n<br \/>                                                                                                                            \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <strong>Methods:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nA total of 72 patients scheduled for heart valve surgery were included in this prospective study. EAT was measured by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) preoperatively. EAT thickness with positive coronary angiography (CAG) results were compared with the negative ones. The Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman Correlation was used to analyse in terms of non-normally distributed variables. The diagnostic decision-making characteristics of the presence of coronary lesions in the prediction of EAT were examined by ROC analysis.\r\n<br \/>        \r\n                \r\n                <strong>Results:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\nPatients with concomitant hypertension (HT) disease had higher EAT thickness than without HT disease (4.11 mm vs 3.57 mm, p = 0.02). Median values were 4.10 (IQR 1.50) and 3.60 (IQR 0.80) respectively. Patient with CAD had significantly higher EAT thickness than without CAD (4.87 mm vs 3.50 mm; p < 0.001). Median values were 4.80 (IQR 0.80) and 3.50 (IQR 0.85), respectively. Smoking habit (Rho = 0.414, p = 0.013), ascending aortic diameter (Rho = 0.24, p = 0.043) and body\/mass index (Rho = 0.360, p = 0.002) had positive correlation with EAT thickness. To define diagnostic value of EAT in predicting coronary lesion, UAC was calculated 0.929 in ROC analysis (p<0.001). When the cut-off point was selected as 4.3 mm, EAT strongly predicts presence of any coronary lesion (sensitivity 78%, specificity 92%).\r\n<br \/>\r\n                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <strong>Conclusion:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nEAT thickness > 4.3 mm is a strong predictor of suspected CAD and may help determine the need for CAG in patients undergoing heart valve surgery.\r\n<br \/>    \r\n                                                                                                          \r\n\r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n            <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <div id=\"keywords\">                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n            <strong>Keywords:<\/strong>                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n            <strong>Epicardial adipose tissue, coronary angiography, coronary artery disease, heart valve surgery, echocardiography<\/strong>                                                                                                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n    <div id=\"publish-info\">                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                \r\n    <strong>Submitted:<\/strong> August 7, 2024; <!--Month day, year; -->    \r\n    <strong>Accepted:<\/strong> May 5, 2025; <!--Month day, year; -->                                                                            \r\n    <strong>Published:<\/strong> October 17, 2025<!--Month day, year; -->                                                                                                                            <br \/>                                                            \r\n        <em>Cardiovasc J Afr 2025; <b>36<\/b>: 445-450<!--pg no. till pg no. \"eg. 4-7\"--><\/em>\r\n        <br \/><strong>Volume 36, Issue 4<\/strong> <br \/>                                                                            \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n                                                                                                                                        \r\n    <div id=\"DOI\">                                                                                                                    \r\n            DOI Citation Reference: dx.doi.org\/10.5830\/CVJA-2025-063<!--DOI number-->                                                                \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n                \r\n                <div id=\"author-affiliation\">                                                                                                \r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Medicine, Konya, Turkey\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\n\u00d6mer Tanyeli<br \/>\r\nMehmet I\u015f\u0131k<br \/>\r\nY\u00fcksel Dereli<br \/>\r\nNiyazi G\u00f6rm\u00fc\u015f\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Etlik City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\n\u0130lker Mercan\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Public Health, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nElif Nur Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m \u00d6zt\u00fcrk\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        \r\n\r\n                [soshsc hide=\"logged\"]\r\n                <strong>You need to be <a style=\"color: #c80c44;\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/member-login\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">logged in to view and download<\/a> the full text PDF version. <a style=\"color: #c80c44;\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/register\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Register for a free account?<\/a><\/strong> <br \/><br \/>[\/soshsc]\r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                <\/div>\r\n    \r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is proposed to be a marker of cardiovascular risk. We aimed to evaluate the association of EAT with the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with valvular heart disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardiovascular-topics","category-volume-36-issue-4"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can epicardial fat tissue thickness help determine the need for coronary angiography before heart valve surgery? - Cardiovascular Journal of Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is proposed to be a marker of cardiovascular risk. We aimed to evaluate the association of EAT with the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with valvular heart disease.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2025-063\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can epicardial fat tissue thickness help determine the need for coronary angiography before heart valve surgery? - Cardiovascular Journal of Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is proposed to be a marker of cardiovascular risk. 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