Pericardial fat tied to increased risk of HF: study
Women appear to be more at risk than men, the researchers report
Excess pericardial fat is associated with an increased risk of heart failure, with women particularly at risk, a study suggests.
US researchers used cardiac CT to assess pericardial fat in nearly 3600 women and some 3200 men without pre-existing cardiovascular disease obtained as part of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and followed participants for a median of nearly 16 years.
After 90,686 person-years of follow-up, 385 participants (5.7%) were newly diagnosed with heart failure.
Each one standard-deviation increase in mean pericardial fat volume was associated with a 44% increased risk of newly diagnosed heart failure in women and a 13% increased risk in men.
