Emerging measurements of atherosclerosis: extra-media thickness, epicardial adipose tissue, and periarterial adipose tissue intima media adventitia index in morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Increased values of emerging fat indices are correlated with increased cardiovascular risk.

To examine the novel non-invasive predictors of coronary disease, namely the carotid extra-media thickness (EMT), PATIMA, and epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), in a group of patients with morbid obesity.

We examined a group of 40 morbidly obese (OB) patients and a control group (CG). All patients were subjected to anthropometric measurements, as well as laboratory and ultrasound examinations.

EATmean and EMTmean differed significantly between groups (OB vs. CG): 5.09 vs. 3.50 and 808.50 vs. 737.00, p < 0.0001, respectively.

Strong correlations were found between novel non-invasive predictors of coronary disease, namely the carotid extra-media thickness, PATIMA, and epicardial adipose tissue. The above-mentioned fat indices were not found to correlate significantly with BMI or other body weight-related parameters used to assess the adipose tissue content. Further studies are required.