Abstract 193: Contribution of Visceral and Epicardial Adipose Tissues to the Variation in the Cardiometabolic Risk of Apparently Healthy Young Adults

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Relative contributions of abdominal versus epicardial adipose tissues to the cardiometabolic profile of young and healthy adults are unknown. We investigated the associations between subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (SAT), visceral abdominal adipose tissue (VAT) and epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) with markers of the cardiometabolic profile in young and apparently healthy males and females. METHOD AND RESULTS: Two hundred and eighty young and apparently healthy subjects (48% (134 of 280) male; age 18 to 35 years; BMI <30 kg/m2) underwent magnetic resonance imaging after voluntary recruitment in the community. We quantified SAT, VAT and EAT. Plasma cardiometabolic risk profile was assessed for each subject (blood pressure, lipid profile, fasting glucose). Associations with markers of the cardiometabolic profile were stronger for VAT and EAT than for SAT. In multivariable regression analyses including all three adipose tissues and taking into account gender and age, only VAT maintained significant associations to systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, triglycerides and apolipoproteins B/A1 ratio. In an effort to identify the strongest office-based predictor of visceral adiposity in this young and apparently healthy young adult sample, we determined that while BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio were all associated to VAT in univariable analyses (p<0.05 for all), only WC remained independently associated to VAT in multivariable analysis (p<0.001). Concurrently, WC was also an independent predictor of EAT in multivariable analysis (p<0.001). CONCLUSION - Because visceral adipose tissues - EAT, and to a greater extent VAT - are more strongly and widely associated with the cardiometabolic profile than is SAT, we believe that assessing visceral adiposity is relevant in young and apparently healthy adults. Beyond simply measuring BMI, the addition of WC measurement in young and apparently healthy adults improves the prediction of visceral adiposity.