Emerging measurements of atherosclerosis: extra-media thickness, epicardial adipose tissue, and periarterial adipose tissue intima media adventitia index in morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Introduction: Increased values of emerging fat indices are correlated with increased cardiovascular risk. Aim: To examine the novel non-invasive predictors of coronary disease, namely the carotid extra-media thickness (EMT), PATIMA, and epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), in a group of patients with morbid obesity. Material and methods: We examined a group of 40 morbidly obese (OB) patients and a control group (CG). All patients were subjected to anthropometric measurements, as well as laboratory and ultrasound examinations. Results: EATmean and EMTmean differed significantly between groups (OB vs. CG): 5.09 vs. 3.50 and 808.50 vs. 737.00, p < 0.0001, respectively. Conclusions: Strong correlations were found between novel non-invasive predictors of coronary disease, namely the carotid extra-media thickness, PATIMA, and epicardial adipose tissue. The above-mentioned fat indices were not found to correlate significantly with BMI or other body weight-related parameters used to assess the adipose tissue content. Further studies are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]