Increased Epicardial Adipose Tissue Is Associated with the Airway Dominant Phenotype of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

• Published in: PloS one 2016-02, Vol.11 (2), p.e0148794-e0148794
• Main Authors: Higami, Yuichi, Ogawa, Emiko, Ryujin, Yasushi, Goto, Kenichi, Seto, Ruriko, Wada, Hiroshi, Tho, Nguyen Van, Lan, Le Thi Tuyet, Paré, Peter D, Nakano, Yasutaka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Adipose tissue; Adipose Tissue - pathology; Adult; Aged; Airway management; Airway Remodeling; Analysis; Atherosclerosis; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers - metabolism; Body fat; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Calcification; Calcinosis; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Chronic obstructive lung disease; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Coronary vessels; Coronary Vessels - pathology; Development and progression; Disease Progression; Emphysema; Forced Expiratory Volume; Genetic aspects; Genotype & phenotype; Heart; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - complications; Internal medicine; Lesions; Lung - physiopathology; Lung diseases; Medical imaging; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolic syndrome; Middle Aged; Mortality; Obstructive lung disease; Patients; Pericardium - pathology; Phenotype; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - physiopathology; Pulmonary Emphysema - physiopathology; Radiography, Thoracic; Regression Analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Respiratory tract; Rheumatoid arthritis; Science; Smokers; Smoking; Spirometry; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Vietnam; Wall thickness
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148794

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been shown to be a non-invasive marker that predicts the progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). It has been reported that the EAT volume is increased in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, little is known about which phenotypes of COPD are associated with increased EAT. One hundred and eighty smokers who were referred to the clinic were consecutively enrolled. A chest CT was used for the quantification of the emphysematous lesions, airway lesions, and EAT. These lesions were assessed as the percentage of low attenuation volume (LAV%), the square root of airway wall area of a hypothetical airway with an internal perimeter of 10 mm (√Aaw at Pi10) and the EAT area, respectively. The same measurements were made on 225 Vietnamese COPD patients to replicate the results. Twenty-six of the referred patients did not have COPD, while 105 were diagnosed as having COPD based on a FEV1/FVC