Abstract
Introduction
Contradictory reports are available on the role of adipose tissue in the pathophysiology and progression of coronary artery disease (CAD). It seems accepted that local fat distribution is more relevant than the general amount of body fat. As in the case of visceral fat, pericardial adipose tissue (PEAT) has been postulated an important mediator of metabolic risk, with a special role attributed to epicardial adipose tissue (EAT).
Purpose
To study the effect of intensive dietary and lifestyle modification on the distribution of body fat in patients diagnosed with stable CAD qualified to conservative treatment.
Methods
Total body fat mass (TBF), visceral fat area (VFA), PEAT volume, and EAT volume were measured in 67 participants (43% women) of the DISCO-CT trial (Dietary Intervention to Stop COronary Atherosclerosis in Computed Tomography, NCT02571803) who completed the study by the end of 2018. All patients, randomly assigned to either experimental or control arm in a 1:1 fashion, were regularly followed-up at our site, with those in the experimental arm being strictly supervised by a dietitian to stick to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and encouraged to lifestyle changes atop optimal medical therapy. Contrast-enhanced coronary computed tomography was performed at baseline and after the median time of 59 weeks (2x192-multislice scanner, temporal resolution 66 ms, Somatom Force, Siemens).
PEAT and EAT volumes, expressed in mm3, were measured with a dedicated offline workstation (syngo.via Frontier, Siemens Healthcare) using a semiautomatic segmentation technique (window width range −195 to −45 Hounsfield units). TBF, expressed in kg, and VFA, expressed in cm2, were measured using the InBody S10 Body Water Analyser at baseline and completion of the study.
57% of subjects included into the analysis represented the experimental arm.
Results
There were no significant between-arm differences in baseline TBF, VFA, PEAT, and EAT volumes.
A significant reduction by 3.7±5.0 kg in TBF (p<0.001; 95% CI 2.1, 5.3) and by 19.7±30.1 cm2 in VFA (p<0.001; 95% CI 9.8, 29.6) was observed in the experimental arm, while in the control group both TBF and VFA irrelevantly increased, by 0.6±4.7 kg (p=0.53; 95% CI −2.4, 1.3) and 2.2±27.0 cm2 (p=0.67; 95% CI −12.7, 8.2), respectively. A significant decrease in PEAT volume, by 19.9±43.0 mm3 (p=0.007; 95% CI 5.8, 34.1), was observed in the experimental group, compared to a non-significant PEAT volume reduction by 5.8±3.5.0 mm3 (p=0.38, 95% CI −7.5; 19.2) in the control group.
Contrarily, no significant changes in EAT volumes were observed in either experimental (reduction by 3.8±15.2 mm3; p=0.13, 95% CI −1.2, 8.8) or control arm (reduction by 5.1±17.2 mm3; p=0.13, 95% CI −1.5, 11.6).
Conclusion
Intensive dietary intervention in patients with stable CAD can lead to a significant reduction in total body fat, visceral fat and pericardial fat, this effect, however, may not apply to epicardial fat.
Acknowledgement/Funding
This study was founded by a grant (2.15/III/15) from the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Poland
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