Introduction: Epicardial fat, as a visceral thoracic fat, is known to be related with presence of dyslipidemia and coronary arterial stenosis. We evaluate the effect of atorvastatin on epicardial fat thickness (EFT) in patients underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Methods: EFT was calculated as an echo-lucent area on the free wall of the right ventricle at end-diastole in the parasternal long-axis and short-axis views. It was measured at the time of PCI and eight to twelve-months follow-up coronary angiography.
Results: We prospectively included total 66 patients (22 females, 64짹9.0 years) underwent successful PCIs from March 2006 to May 2007. All patients were medicated with atorvastatin 10 or 20mg daily and follow up duration was 10.36.5 months. Of them, 17 (25.8%) patients showed in-stent restenosis and 14 (21%) showed worsening of previous coronary arterial disease (CAD). With statin treatment, total cholesterol concentration (184.3짹32.5 to 130.0짹22.1 mg/dL, P<0.001), triglycerides (142.4짹79.0 to 117.3짹65.9 mg/dL, P=0.016), and LDL-cholesterol (115.2짹24.3 to 67.2짹18.4 mg/dL, P<0.001) were significantly decreased. However, HDL-cholesterol (40.0짹7.4 to 39.4짹7.4 mg/dL, P=0.571) and hs-CRP (5.6짹10.7 to 2.7짹3.7 mg/dL, P=0.076) were not significantly changed. EFT was significantly decreased (4.4짹1.4 to 3.9짹1.5 mm, P<0.001). However, there was no close relationship between the decrease of EFT and presence of restenosis or worsening of CAD.
Conclusion: In this study, atorvastatin showed significant reduction in EFT in patients underwent PCI. More large patients and prolonged period will be needed to evaluate the decrease of EFT on clinical events.