Pericardial fat is associated with coronary artery calcification in non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease patients.

Pericardial fat (PF) a component of visceral adipose tissue has been consistently related to coronary atherosclerosis in the general population. This study evaluated the association between PF and coronary artery calcification (CAC) in non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. This is a post-hoc cross sectional analysis of the baseline of a prospective cohort of 117 outward CKD patients without manifest coronary artery disease (age, 56.9 ± 11.0 years, 64.1% males, 95.1% hypertensives, 25.2% diabetics, 15.5% ever smokers, CKD stage 2 to 5 with estimated glomerular filtration rate 36.8 ± 18.1 ml/min). CAC scores, PF volume and abdominal visceral fat (AVF) areas were measured by computed tomography. The association of PF as a continuous variable with the presence of CAC was analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. CAC (calcium score > 0) was present in 59.2% patients. Those presenting CAC were on average 10 years older, had a higher proportion of male gender (78.7% vs. 42.9%, p < 0.001), and had higher values of waist circumference (95.9 ± 10.7 vs. 90.2 ± 13.2 cm, p = 0.02), PF volumes (224.8 ± 107.6 vs. 139.1 ± 85.0 cm3, p<0.01) and AVF areas (109.2 ± 81.5 vs. 70.2 ± 62.9 cm2, p = 0.01). In the multivariate analysis, adjusting for age, gender, diabetes, smoking and, left ventricular concentric hypertrophy, PF was significantly associated with the presence of CAC (OR: 1.88 95% CI: 1.03-3.43 per standard deviation). PF remained associated with CAC even with additional adjustments for estimated glomerular filtration rate or serum phosphorus (OR: 1.85 95% CI: 1.00-3.42, p = 0.05). PF is independently associated with CAC in non-dialysis dependent CKD patients.