Relation of subepicardial adipose tissue to carotid intima-media thickness in patients with human immunodeficiency virus.

Patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at increased risk for subclinical atherosclerosis. Whether increased cardiac adiposity may be related to HIV subclinical atherosclerosis is still unexplored. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether echocardiographically determined subepicardial adipose tissue, an index of cardiac adiposity, is related to carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), an index of subclinical atherosclerosis, in HIV-infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy. Echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness and ultrasonographic IMT were measured in 103 consecutive HIV-infected Caucasian subjects receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy. Echocardiographic subepicardial adipose tissue showed an excellent correlation with IMT (r = 0.92, p <0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that IMT was best predicted by epicardial fat thickness (r(2) = 0.81, p <0.01). In conclusion, this study suggests, for the first time, that epicardial adipose tissue, an index of cardiac adiposity, may be significantly related to subclinical atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients.