Epicardial fat thickness (EFT) may be independently associated with psoriasis, according to researchers.
The epicardial fat thickness was significantly higher in patients with psoriasis compared with patients without psoriasis, and EFT was independently associated with the disease, wrote Zl Akyildiz of İzmir Katip Çelebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital in Turkey, and colleagues. Their findings were published in Dermatology.
A total of 31 patients with psoriasis and 32 control subjects were included in the case-control study, and each patient in both groups underwent cardiac ultrasound for EFT was evaluation. The results revealed that EFT was significantly higher in psoriasis patients compared with controls (P=0.027).
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However, researchers noted that EFT may be evaluated in conjunction with other serum inflammatory markers, but not alone, to provide information about systemic inflammation in patients with psoriasis.
In a Letter to the Editor in Dermatology, Ilknur Balta, MD, and colleagues wrote that EFT as a single marker may not provide the necessary information to clinicians.
“Although EFT by echocardiography has natural errors in comparison with computed MRI, EFT measurement with echocardiography has several advantages, including its inexpensiveness, easy accessibility, rapid applicability and good reproducibility,” Balta and colleagues wrote. “However, echocardiography cannot be the optimal technique for quantification of epicardial fat.”
