New article published: Menghoum et al, 2025

Congratulations to Dr. Menghoum and her colleagues on the publication of their article on the effect of metabolic comorbidities on epicardial adipose tissue in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in Cardiovascular Diabetology. We are delighted to have been able to contribute to the success of this article!

𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞 (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is aggravated by the development of 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 (EAT), which is promoted by diabetes and obesity. The authors sought to characterize the link between ventricular EAT, 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 in three types of patients: pre-HF patients, patients with HFpEF, and a control group. The primary endpoint of the study was a composite of mortality or first hospitalization for HF in the HFpEF group.

EAT was 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐅𝐩𝐄𝐅 compared to those in the pre-HF stage and control patients. The 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐅𝐩𝐄𝐅 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 were EAT, NT-proBNP, and the H2FPEF score. EAT correlated with the H2FPEF score, body mass index, ultrasensitive troponin, NT-proBNP, E/e' ratio, soluble suppressor of tumorigenicity-2 (SST2), and global longitudinal strain of the left ventricle. 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 the presence of diabetes, ischemic cardiomyopathy, and high SST2 levels.

These results therefore showed that EAT assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐅𝐩𝐄𝐅 compared to other groups, regardless of body mass index and the presence or absence of diabetes. Thus, EAT could be an 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐅𝐩𝐄𝐅. The article is available on the journal's website: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-025-02688-7.