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Longitudinal effect of myocardial fat deposition on left ventricular diastolic function: a retrospective cohort study

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Abstract

There is a known correlation between myocardial steatosis and heart function, but it is unclear how left ventricular diastolic function worsens over time in the myocardial steatosis setting. We sought to investigate whether intramyocardial fat deposition affects diastolic function over time. This was a retrospective analysis of patients who had undergone 1–3 echocardiography assessments between April 2011 and April 2017. Patients were divided into two groups: those with the presence of myocardial fat deposition in the left ventricular myocardium (assessed by having tissue within any 10-mm2 region with computed tomography values between − 190 and − 30 Hounsfield units; + MF), and those with absence of deposition not meeting the threshold (− MF). The rates of change of the standard early diastolic mitral annulus velocity (e′) and the transmitral early peak velocity (E)/e′ ratio at the second and third echocardiograph assessments were calculated relative to baseline. In total, 125 patients were eligible (+ MF, n = 39; − MF, n = 86) for inclusion. Compared with the − MF group, e′ was significantly lower and E/e′ was significantly higher in the + MF group at each scan timepoint, even when adjusted for body mass index and sex. A significant average decrease in e′ and increase in E/e′ was also observed in the + MF group across all scans compared with the − MF group. Myocardial steatosis was associated with an acceleration of decreased left ventricular diastolic function over time.

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Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Clare Cox, PhD, and Tim Spelman, PhD, of Edanz for providing medical writing and statistical analysis support, respectively. No funding was received for this study.

Funding

No funding was received for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Minamino Cardiovascular Hospital, 1-25-1 Hyoue, Hachiouji, Tokyo, 192-0918, Japan

    Yoshiki Hata, Youko Koike, Junji Mochizuki, Shuichi Okamoto, Hiroaki Matsumi & Katsushi Hashimoto

  2. Ultrasound Diagnostic Center, Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center, Saitama, Japan

    Noriko Kimura

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  1. Yoshiki Hata
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the interpretation of the data and critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and agree to be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the contents. Conception and design of the study and analysis of the data were performed by YH, YK, NK, and JM. Data acquisition was conducted by YK, NK, JM, SO, HM, and KH. YH contributed to the manuscript drafting.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoshiki Hata.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical approval

This research study was conducted retrospectively from data obtained for clinical purposes. We consulted extensively with the IRB of Minamino Cardiovascular Hospital who determined that our study did not need ethical approval. An IRB official waiver of ethical approval was granted from the IRB of Minamino Cardiovascular Hospital.

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All patients provided written informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

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Not applicable. No individually identifiable patient data are included.

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Some results of this study were previously presented at the 82nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society, March 23–25, 2018, Osaka, Japan. Data from the first scan of 26 of the 125 participants were included in a previous publication: Kimura et al.: The influence of myocardial fat on the cardiac function. Japanese Journal of Medical Ultrasound Technology 2013; 38:375–380.

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Hata, Y., Koike, Y., Kimura, N. et al. Longitudinal effect of myocardial fat deposition on left ventricular diastolic function: a retrospective cohort study. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 38, 955–961 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-021-02483-x

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