EACVI: Myocardial Injury Risk Increased After AMI With Elevated Epicardial Adipose Tissue Volume

MONDAY, Dec. 22, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Patients with elevated epicardial adipose tissue volume (EATV) exhibit greater acute myocardial injury following acute myocardial infarction (AMI), according to a study presented at the annual congress of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, held from Dec. 11 to 13 in Vienna.

Clara Hagedorn, from University Hospital Gӧttingen in Germany, and colleagues examined whether EAT-induced remodeling increases myocardial vulnerability to injury following AMI among 1,168 patients who were prospectively enrolled in a multicentric study. Participants underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging within 10 days after percutaneous coronary intervention following AMI.

EATV was manually derived for 962 patients from short-axis cine images and indexed to body surface area. The researchers found that patients with EATV in the upper quartile were older and had higher body mass index; the proportion of male patients was higher in all quartiles. Patients with higher EATV exhibited progressively increased infarct size (IS) and larger area at risk (AAR). Across EATV quartiles, there was variability seen in microvascular obstruction (MVO), but no discernible pattern emerged. Across all quartiles, left ventricular ejection fraction and global longitudinal strain remained comparable. In linear regression analyses, independent associations were seen for higher EATV with greater IS, larger AAR, and smaller MVO.

“We would like to understand more about the mechanisms by which EAT impacts the myocardium,” senior author Alexander Schulz, M.D., Ph.D., also from University Hospital Gӧttingen, said in a statement. “MI occurs at a relatively late stage in the development of coronary artery disease and it may be possible to intervene earlier in the process.”

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