Ernesto Guerra

Tejido adiposo epicárdico y su asociación con niveles plasmáticos de adrenomedulina en pacientes con síndrome metabólico

OBJECTIVE To assess the association between epicardial adipose tissue thickness (EAT) and plasma adrenomedullin plasma levels in patients with metabolic syndrome (MS). METHODS Twenty-one patients (12 females and 9 males) with MS according to the International Diabetes Federation guidelines, aged 22-58 years, were enrolled into the study and compared to 19 age-matched control subjects without MS. Plasma glucose, lipid, and adrenomedullin levels were assessed. EAT, left ventricular mass, and carotid intima-media thickness were evaluated by transthoracic two-dimensional echocardiography. RESULTS No statistically significant differences were found between the groups in age, sex, and height. Body weight, abdominal circumference (AC), body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were significantly higher (p=0.0001) in MS patients; this group also showed significantly higher glucose (p=0.001), total cholesterol (p=0.01), LDL-C (p=0.03), VLDL-C (p=0.005), triglyceride (p=0.002), Tg/HDL ratio (p=0.0001), and plasma adrenomedullin (3.49±1.21 vs 1.69±0.92 ng/mL; p=0.0001) levels and lower HDL-C (p=0.02) levels as compared to the control group. EAT was significantly thicker in MS patients compared to the control group (8.45±3.14 vs 5.43±0.96; p=0.0001), showed a positive correlation to BMI (r=0.347; p=0.02), AC (r=0.350; p=0.02), DBP (r=0.346; p=0.02), and adrenomedullin levels (r=0.741; p=0.0001). In multiple linear regression analysis, adrenomedullin was the only parameter associated to EAT (R(2)=0.550; p=0.0001). CONCLUSION In this small patient group, a statistically significant association was found between EAT and plasma adrenomedullin levels, which may be considered as a potential biomarker of MS.

Medición ecocardiográfica de la grasa epicárdica

Resumen La grasa epicardica es un organo metabolicamente activo que genera varias moleculas que pueden afectar de forma significativa la funcion cardiaca. Ademas, el tejido adiposo epicardico puede reflejar la grasa visceral intraabdominal. Por tanto, la evaluacion ecocardiografica de este tejido podria servir como un marcador fiable de adiposidad visceral. El tejido adiposo epicardico tambien se relaciona con parametros clinicos y antropometricos del sindrome metabolico; por tanto, la evaluacion ecocardiografica de la grasa epicardica podria ser una herramienta practica y sencilla para estratificar el riesgo cardiovascular en la practica clinica.