BACKGROUND South Asians have a low body mass index and high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) relative to other racial/ethnic groups. Radiographically detected ectopic fat distribution is better associated with CVD than body mass index. We assessed whether differences in ectopic fat depots explained differences in the prevalence/severity of coronary artery calcium (CAC), a predictor of...

Ascites and pleural effusions may complicate pancreatitis but pericarditis with pericardial effusion and tamponade is rare and necrosis of mediastinal fat has not been described before. All these complications occurred in the case reported here.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Recent studies suggest that pericardial adipose tissue (PCAT) secretes inflammatory factors that contribute to the development of CVD. To better characterize the role of PCAT in the pathogenesis of disease, we performed a large-scale unbiased analysis of the transcriptional differences betwee...

BACKGROUND Obesity and visceral adiposity are increasingly recognized risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Visceral fat may reduce myocardial perfusion by impairing vascular endothelial function. Women experience more anginal symptoms compared to men despite less severe coronary artery stenosis, as assessed by angiography. Women and men have different fat storage patterns which may account ...

An obese 52-year-old woman underwent mitral valve replacement. On the first day after the operation, she had left-sided weakness. Brain CT showed right side middle cerebral artery infarction, and a hypodense filling defect was noted in the right distal internal carotid artery (figure, A). Region of interest measurement of CT density of the hypodense lesion was –83 Hounsfield units (figure, B), ...

1. Wong CX, Abed HS, Molaee P, et al. Pericardial fat is associated with atrial fibrillation severity and ablation outcome. J Am Coll Cardiol 2011;57:1745–51. 2. Nelson AJ, Worthley MI, Psaltis PJ, et al. Validation of cardiovascular magnetic resonance assessment of pericardial adipose tissue volume. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 2009;11:15. 3. Iacobellis G, Willens HJ. Echocardiographic epicardial f...

Among the echocardiograms of 844 patients of the International Goodwill Hospital from January 1980 to April 1981, 700 showed clinically inexplicable extra echo spaces. Fifty of the 700 had computerised tomography of their hearts which showed the extra echo spaces to be caused either by anterior or posterior subepicardial fat. Six of the 50 cases had both fat and pericardial effusions, which are...

Emerging evidence suggests that epicardial and pericardial fat are related to the presence, severity and outcome of AF. These associations, independent of generalized obesity, suggest that they may become increasingly useful as markers for risk stratification or monitoring in the clinical setting. Mechanistically, studies have suggested the effects of epicardial and pericardial fat may be media...

OBJECTIVE Malposition or misplacement of gastric bands is a rare but recognised early complication of gastric band surgery. Malposition of the band would not normally result in significant weight loss after surgery. CASE REPORT To our knowledge, we report the first case in the English literature of a malpositioned gastric band encircling the pericardial fat pad only, who presented with delaye...