ArticleObesity (Silver Spring, Md.)2021
Epicardial fat inflammation response to COVID-19 therapies.
Article in Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of epicardial adipose tissue with the severity and adverse clinical outcomes of COVID-19: A meta-analysis.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Pericardial Fat Tissue as a Predictor of the Severity of Acute Coronavirus Infection COVID-19.Journal of clinical medicine research · 2025Article
- Evaluation of epicardial adipose tissue in children with type 1 diabetes.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Epicardial Adipose Tissue: a Potential Therapeutic Target for Cardiovascular Diseases.Journal of cardiovascular translational research · 2024Review
- The relationship between epicardial adipose tissue thickness and arrhythmias in patients with hypertension: a 3.0T cardiac magnetic resonance study.The British journal of radiology · 2023Article
- Is There a Relationship Between Epicardial Adipose Tissue, Inflammatory Markers, and the Severity of COVID-19 Pneumonia?Sisli Etfal Hastanesi tip bulteni · 2023Article
- Cardiac adipose tissue volume assessed by computed tomography is a specific and independent predictor of early mortality and critical illness in COVID-19 in type 2-diabetic patients.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2022Article
- Impact of Glucocorticoids on Cardiovascular System-The Yin Yang Effect.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Review
- Epicardial adipose tissue in contemporary cardiology.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2022 · on this mapReview
- Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in subcutaneous fat but not visceral fat, and the disruption of fat lymphocyte homeostasis in both fat tissues in the macaque.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Review
- Epicardial fat inflammation response to COVID-19 therapies.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2021Article
- COVID-19 and Obesity: Role of Ectopic Visceral and Epicardial Adipose Tissues in Myocardial Injury.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Review
- Atrial inflammation and microvascular thrombogenicity are increased in deceased COVID-19 patients.Cardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular PathologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveAdipose tissue plays a role in the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), a unique visceral fat, presents with a high degree of inflammation in severe COVID-19. Whether and how adipose tissue may respond to the COVID-19 therapies is unknown.
methodsThe difference in computed tomography-measured EAT and subcutaneous (SAT) attenuation, defined as mean attenuation expressed in Hounsfield units (HU), was retrospectively analyzed in 72 patients (mean [SD] age was 59.6 [12.4] years, 50 patients [69%] were men) at the hospital admission for COVID-19 and 99 days (interquartile range = 71-129) after discharge.
resultsAt the admission, EAT-HU was significantly correlated with blood glucose levels, interleukin 6, troponin T levels, and waist circumference. EAT-HU decreased from -87.21 (16.18) to -100.0 (11) (p < 0.001), whereas SAT-HU did not change (-110.21 [12.1] to -111.11 [27.82]; p = 0.78) after therapy. Changes in EAT-HU (expressed as ∆) significantly correlated with dexamethasone therapy (r = -0.46, p = 0.006) and when dexamethasone was combined with tocilizumab (r = -0.24, p = 0.04).
conclusionsDexamethasone therapy was associated with significant reduction of EAT inflammation in COVID-19 patients, whereas SAT showed no changes. Anti-inflammatory therapies targeting visceral fat may be helpful in COVID-19.
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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.