THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EPICARDIAL FAT TISSUE THICKNESS AND RISK OF FREQUENT PREMATURE VENTRICULAR CONTRACTIONS

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the relation between epicardial fat tissue (EFT) thickness and frequent premature ventricular contractions. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, patients with no structural heart diseases diagnosed with PVCs on a 24 holter rhythm monitoring were included. EFT thickness was measured by 2-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography. PVCs of more than 10 per hour were considered as frequent PVCs. To investigate the effect of independent variables, univariate logistic regression was performed. Results: Of total 50 studied patients, 64% were females. The mean age of subjects was 46.8 +/- 13.1 years. Twenty-five patients were experiencing frequent PVCs of >10 per hour. In univariate analysis, age (OR= 1.05, 95 % CI; 1.01-1.10, p=0.050), left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD) (OR= 1.14, 95 % CI; 1.01-1.28, p=0.036) and left atrial (LA) diameter (OR= 1.35, 95 % CI; 1.11-1.62, p=0.002) were significantly associated with developing frequent PVC. EFT thickness was positively correlated with age (r= 0.389, p= 0.005) and inter ventricular septum thickness in diastole (IVSD) (r= 0.384, p= 0.006). No significant correlation between EFT and PVCs was found (p=0.669). Conclusion: Patients with frequent PVCs had significantly higher LVEDD and LA diameter. Although patients with higher EFT thickness were more likely to experience frequent PVCs, there was no statistically significant correlation between EFT thickness and frequent PVCs.