ReviewJournal of cardiovascular computed tomography
State-of-the-art review article. Atherosclerosis affecting fat: What can we learn by imaging perivascular adipose tissue?
Review in Journal of cardiovascular computed tomography. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pericoronary Fat Attenuation Index Is Associated With Vulnerable Plaque Components and Local Immune-Inflammatory Activation in Patients With Non-ST Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Trial
- Development and performance of a vascular inflammation index for spontaneous isolated superior mesenteric artery dissection based on automated radial spatial PVAT analysis.Japanese journal of radiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Plaque-level machine-learning prediction of carotid plaque vulnerability on computed tomography angiography.Neuroradiology · 2026Article
- Epicardial adipose tissue signatures in Asian coronary artery disease: Insights from cardiac CT.American journal of preventive cardiology · 2026Article
- Computed Tomography-Based Radiomics Provides New Insights Into Associations Between Pericoronary Fat Characteristics and Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Article
- Pericoronary Radiomics Signature for Non-Culprit Lesion Progression and Revascularization Decision in NSTE-ACS.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Utilization of aorta-specific fat attenuation index in evaluating disease activity and inflammation in Takayasu arteritis.Insights into imaging · 2026Article
- Coronary Plaque Vulnerability and Pericoronary Adipose Tissue Inflammation: Emerging Insights from Advanced CT Imaging.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- The PVAT-MAMs Axis in Atherosclerosis: A Hypothesis-Driven Cross-Scale Conceptual Framework.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- A new insight on imaging characteristics of pericoronary adipose tissue for cardiovascular risk.Cardiovascular ultrasound · 2026Review
- Pericarotid fat density: a novel predictor of cognitive and functional outcomes in cerebral small vessel disease.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Emerging quantitative CCTA imaging biomarkers for cardiovascular risk stratification: a narrative review.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Review
- Prognostic value of lesion-specific and proximal coronary segment pericoronary adipose tissue CT Attenuation in ischemic heart disease with angina pectoris.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Potential of Epicardial Adipose Tissue Quantification in Predicting Atrial Thrombus in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Article
- Association between perivascular fat density on CT angiography and abdominal aortic aneurysm progression.BMC medical imaging · 2025Article
- The Dual Role of Perivascular Adipose Tissue in Vascular Homeostasis and Atherogenesis: From Physiology to Pathological Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Association between coronary plaque vulnerability features and multiparametric pericoronary fat indices on coronary computed tomography angiography: a cross-sectional study.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- The Perivascular Fat Attenuation Index: Bridging Inflammation and Cardiovascular Disease Risk.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Carotid Pericarotid Fat Density: A New Predictor of Recurrent Ischemic Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack.Journal of atherosclerosis and thrombosis · 2025Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) surrounding the human coronary arteries, secretes a wide range of adipocytokines affecting the biology of the adjacent vascular wall in a paracrine way. However, we have recently found that PVAT also behaves as a sensor of signals coming from the vascular wall, to which it reacts by changing its morphology and secretory profile. Indeed, vascular inflammation, a key feature of vascular disease pathogenesis, leads to the release of inflammatory signals that disseminate into local fat, inducing local lipolysis and inhibiting adipogenesis. This ability of PVAT to sense inflammatory signals from the vascular wall, can be used as a "thermometer" of the vascular wall, allowing for non-invasive detection of coronary inflammation. Vascular inflammation induces a shift of PVAT's composition from lipid to aqueous phase, resulting into increased computed tomography (CT) attenuation around the inflamed artery, forming a gradient with increasing attenuation closer to the inflamed coronary artery wall. These spatial changes in PVAT's attenuation are easily detected around culprit lesions during acute coronary syndromes. A new biomarker designed to captured these spatial changes in PVAT's attenuation around the human coronary arteries, the Fat Attenuation Index (FAI), has additional predictive value in stable patients for cardiac mortality and non-fatal heart attacks, above the prediction provided by the current state of the art that includes risk factors, calcium score and presence of high risk plaque features. The use of perivascular FAI in clinical practice may change the way we interpret cardiovascular CT angiography, as it is applicable to any coronary CT angiogram, and it offers dynamic information about the inflammatory burden of the coronary arteries, providing potential guidance for preventive measures and invasive treatments.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.