• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.104-109
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• 2017

Objectives: Epicardial fat is true visceral fat that is known to be associated with metabolic syndrome, high abdominal fat, insulin resistance, coronary artery diseases, low coronary flow reserve and subclinical atherosclerosis. Dampness-Phlegm pattern is one of the pattern diagnosis of traditional Korean medicine. Previous studies showed that Dampness-Phlegm pattern is associated with hypertension, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome. This study is intended to find association between Dampness-Phlegm pattern and epicardial fat thickness. Methods: This study was a community-based single center trial. Ischemic stroke patients within 30 days after their ictus were enrolled. Epicardial fat thickness was measured using transthoracic echocardiography. Other measured and obtained variables are medical history, weight, height, body mass index, fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, triglycerol, high density lipoprotein, lipid and low density lipoprotein. Results: Three hundred sixty six were enlisted, and one hundred forty were diagnosed with the Dampness-Phlegm pattern. Dampness-Phlegm pattern group had significantly thicker epicardial fat. Binary logistic regression also showed statistically significant result. Conclusions: This study showed close association between epicardial fat and Dampness-Phlegm pattern. This result suggests a clue to standardization of pattern identification.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.233-236
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• 1995

Subepicardial space is one of the regions in which fat in moderate amount is normally deposited. When excess deposits of epicardial fat occur, penetration or infiltration of fat into the connective tissues between muscle bundles is observed. In some cases with very extensive involvement of epicardial fat,myocardial insufficiency and conduction system defect such as heart block have been implicated. More fat is deposited over the right ventricle than over left and the anterior surface contains more fat than dose the posterior surface. We studied 40 patients who underwent open heart surgery under the cardiopulmonary bypass. This study was designed to evaluate the percentage of the area of epicardial fat of the right ventricular anterior surface, which is more accessible area during the operative procedure. Other variables included thickness of subcutanous tissue of anterior chest wall, the ratio of waist to hip circumference, body weight and age. In conclusion, the amount of the epicardial fat correlates with thickness of the subcutaneous fat of the anterior chest wall and simple linear regression analysis indicates good correlation with body weight. Increased age results in large amount of epicardial fat.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2018

The incidence of cardiovascular disease increases rapidly after 40's. The thickness of the epicardial adipose tissue was measured to analyze the risk factors affecting the thickness change. We present the cut off value for the epicardial adipose tissue thickness for high impacted variables. For the study, 547 patients underwent echocardiography, epicardial adipose tissue thickness, body mass index, abdominal subcutaneous fat thickness and diabetes mellitus were used as analytical variables. As a result, multiple regression analysis of age group showed that diabetes mellitus was highly influential in all age group, so we could predict the cut off value for the epicardial adipose tissue thickness for diabetes mellitus. As a result of ROC curve analysis, cut off value of 7.44 mm was obtained with sensitivity of 79.6% and specificity of 60.6% for diab etes variab le. Logistic regression analysis b ased on this value showed that the risk for diab etes increased 6 times with each increase in the thickness of the epicardial adipose tissue. Among the various obesity indexes, epicardial adipose tissue is used as an important index especially to prevent the risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, we suggest that the use of echocardiography as a routine screening method for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, which is rapidly increasing in patients over 40's age, will enable more effective monitoring. Radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.476-483
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• 2016

Epicardial adipose tissue(EAT) is metabolically active endocrine organ that secretes several hormones in fat thickness is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. This study was to measure and then using ultrasound epicardial adipose tissue thickness, abdominal subcutaneous fat thickness in the target group correlates and general blood properties and characteristics, and presents a local thickness for prediction of metabolic disorders. Results epicardal adipose tissue of the average thickness measured in each of the subjects was 8.890mm, 4.783mm, 4.777, 6.147mm in each section. Showed the epicardial adipose tissue in correlation with the average thickness of the risk factors age, BMI, SBP, LDH, LDL, TC is a positive correlation relationship(p<0.05) in each section. In particular, the thickness of the metabolic disorders epicardial adipose tissue thickness, abdominal subcutaneous compared to subjects that do not have the risk subjects with a risk factor for fat significantly higher(p<0.05). It showed the most reliable that can be cut-off value of 8.950mm obtained with 66.7 % sensitivity and 80 % specificity for predicting the risk of metabolic disorders.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.219-228
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• 2017

Postmenopausal women are at increased risk for osteoporosis and obesity due to changes in hormones. The relationship between osteoporosis and body weight is known, and its relation with body fat mass is discussed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bone mineral density(BMD) changes of epicardial adipose tissue(EAT) and abdominal subcutaneous fat. The subjects of this study were 160 postmenopausal women who underwent BMD and echocardiography. The thickness of the epicardial adipose tissue was measured in three sections and the BMD were meassured according to the diagnostic criteria. The results of this study that age increase the risk of osteoporosis increases, and as the weight and BMI decrease, the risk of osteoporosis increases(p<0.05). The relationship between changes in bone mineral density and adipose tissue in postmenopausal women, increased epicardial adipose tissue was negatively correlated with the bone mineral density(p<0.05). conversely, increased abdominal subcutaneous fat thickness was positively correlated with bone mineral density(p<0.05). In other words, the effect of bone mineral density on the location of adipose tissue was different. If Echocardiography is used to periodically examine changes in the thickness of the epicardial adipose tissue, it may be prevented before proceeding to osteoporosis.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2013

Purpose : To evaluate late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) pattern of left ventricular (LV) myocardium and presence or absence of LGE in other regions of the heart on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in patients diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis. Materials and Methods: From 2009 to 2011, 9 patients who were suspected cardiac amyloidosis underwent CMR. We retrospectively analyzed the presence or absence of LGE and enhancement pattern in LV myocardium, and the presence or absence of LGE in other chambers as well. Also we measured interatrial septal thickness (IST), relative signal intensities of atrial septum and epicardial fat over the left atrial (LA) cavity on delayed enhanced images. MRI parameters in these patients were compared to those of control group of patients with ischemic heart disease by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results: Of nine patients, LGE were found in 8; subendocardial circumferential pattern in 4 and diffuse pattern in 4. LGE in right ventricle was observed in 7. IST was significantly increased in patients with cardiac amyloidosis (P = 0.02). Ratio of atrial septum to LA cavity and ratio of epicardial fat to LA cavity showed a significant difference (P = 0.0002 and P = 0.0006, respectively). Conclusion: In LGE CMR, subendocardial or diffuse enhancement pattern is a typical finding for patients with cardiac amyloidosis. Atrial septum and epicardial fat show relatively increased signal intensities over LA blood cavity.