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Relationship of para- and perirenal fat and epicardial fat with metabolic parameters in overweight and obese subjects

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Abstract

Background

The accumulation of visceral body fat, has been shown to be associated with higher risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease. This study was addressed to examine whether para- and perirenal fat thickness and epicardial fat thickness were correlated with anthropometric- and cardiometabolic risk factors.

Methods

A cohort of 102 uncomplicated overweight and obese patients was examined. BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting insulin, glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol serum levels, and insulin resistance (assessed by HOMAIR) were measured. Para- and perirenal fat thickness (PUFT) and epicardial fat thickness (EUFT) were measured by ultrasounds.

Results

PUFT was positively correlated with BMI (p < 0.001), waist circumference (p < 0.001), insulin (p < 0.001), HOMAIR (p < 0.001), triglycerides (p < 0.05), systolic (p < 0.05) and diastolic (p < 0.05) blood pressure, and negatively correlated with HDL-cholesterol (p < 0.01). EUFT was positively associated with age (p < 0.01), BMI (p < 0.001), waist circumference (p < 0.001), systolic (p < 0.01) and diastolic (p < 0.001) blood pressure, and LDL-cholesterol (p < 0.05). A multivariate analysis by multiple linear regression was performed, and the final model showed a direct association of waist circumference with both PUFT and EUFT, a correlation of PUFT with HOMAIR (positive) and HDL-cholesterol (negative), and a direct association of EUFT (both long axis and short axis) with LDL-cholesterol. All these correlations were independent of other anthropometric, metabolic and hemodynamic parameters.

Conclusions

This study shows that accumulation of central fat in apparently healthy overweight and obese subjects is associated to a simultaneous increase of pararenal, perirenal and epicardial fat. Moreover, it shows that only para- and perirenal fat is independently associated to insulin resistance and lower HDL-cholesterol, and only epicardial fat is independently associated to higher LDL cholesterol.

Level of evidence Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Nephrology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, School of Medicine, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124, Bari, Italy

    Carlo Manno, Nicla Campobasso & Loreto Gesualdo

  2. Clinical Nutrition Unit, Medical Oncology, Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, School of Medicine, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124, Bari, Italy

    Adele Nardecchia, Roberta Zupo, Franco Silvestris & Giovanni De Pergola

  3. Section of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, School of Medicine, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy

    Vincenzo Triggiani

Authors
  1. Carlo Manno
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  2. Nicla Campobasso
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  3. Adele Nardecchia
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  4. Vincenzo Triggiani
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  5. Roberta Zupo
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  6. Loreto Gesualdo
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  7. Franco Silvestris
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  8. Giovanni De Pergola
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Correspondence to Carlo Manno.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the local ethics committee (Comitato Etico Indipendente Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria “Consorziale Policlinico”, Bari).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Manno, C., Campobasso, N., Nardecchia, A. et al. Relationship of para- and perirenal fat and epicardial fat with metabolic parameters in overweight and obese subjects. Eat Weight Disord 24, 67–72 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0532-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0532-z

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