The Study
Correlation of Epicardial Fat Thickness With the Severity of Coronary Artery Disease
This study found that people with more fat around their heart tend to have more clogged arteries, but it doesn't prove that the fat made the arteries clog — maybe something else, like diet or genes, causes both. It's like noticing that people who wear hats often have long hair — but hats don't make hair grow.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Scientists measured the fat around the heart using ultrasound and saw that people with worse heart artery blockages had more fat around their hearts.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 544 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — thicker heart fat may signal worse artery blockages, even without invasive tests, and could help doctors spot high-risk patients earlier.
- 2People with heart disease had 5.24 mm of fat around the heart; those without had 2.94 mm.
- 3Fat thickness went up with more blocked arteries: 6.25 mm in triple-vessel disease.
- 4The test correctly identified heart disease 79% of the time.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Cureus
Year
2025
Authors
Kadappa B Nagoni, Rajesh Nandal, M. Mathew, B. K. Agrawal, Varun Bhutani
Related Content
Claims (6)
People with coronary artery disease have thicker fat layers around the heart compared to those without coronary artery disease, based on measurements taken during angiography.
Adults with triple-vessel coronary artery disease have thicker layers of fat around the heart than adults with no significant heart artery blockage, and the thickness of this fat increases with the number of blocked arteries.
In adults with coronary artery disease, those who have diabetes show thicker fat deposits around the heart than those without diabetes.
The amount of fat around the heart can be measured to estimate how severe coronary artery disease is, with a diagnostic accuracy level indicated by an ROC curve of 0.78, 78.79% sensitivity, and 76.47% specificity.
In adults undergoing angiography for suspected heart disease, greater fat thickness around the heart measured by ultrasound is consistently linked to more severe narrowing of the coronary arteries, as measured by the Gensini score.
Epicardial fat produces inflammatory molecules including interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha that act directly on the heart muscle and coronary arteries, contributing to the development of cardiovascular disease.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.