Assessment of epicardial adipose tissue volume and carotid intima-media thickness in children with primary arterial hypertension by magnetic resonance imaging

Nina Schweighofer; Natasa Marcun Varda; Primoz Caf; Mitja Rupreht; Vojko Kanic; Petra Povalej Brzan

doi:10.2478/raon-2025-0030

.blurhash-client-img { display: none !important; }

Assessment of epicardial adipose tissue volume and carotid intima-media thickness in children with primary arterial hypertension by magnetic resonance imaging

Radiology and Oncology

Volume 59 (2025): Issue 3 (September 2025)

By: Nina Schweighofer, Natasa Marcun Varda, Primoz Caf, Mitja Rupreht, Vojko Kanic and Petra Povalej Brzan

Open Access

|May 2025

Figures & Tables

Cine segmented steady-state free-precession MRI of the heart in 14-years-old boy diagnosed with arterial hypertension. Contours of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) are outlined by hand on end diastolic short-axis image. The EAT volume (EATV) is 14.89 cm³.

The MR imaging of the common right carotid artery. T1-weighted dark blood fast-spin echo pulse sequence demonstrated adequate soft tissue contrast. The intimamedia thickness of the vessel wall is outlined.

The MR imaging of the right common carotid artery. The measurements of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in a healthy 14-year-old boy. The calculated average cIMT was 0.3 mm.

TABLE 1.

Comparing epicardial adipose tissue volume and intima-media thickness between groups

	All (N = 72)	Children with AH (N = 36)	Healthy children (N = 36)	Test value (p-value)
Variable	MV ± SD / M (IQR)	MV ± SD / M (IQR)	MV ± SD / M (IQR)
EATV (cm³)	13.7 ± 3.3	16.5 ± 1.9	10.9 ± 1.5	t = -13.815 (< 0.001)*
cIMT (mm)	0.5 (0.3)	0.7 (0.2)	0.4 (0.2)	U = 54 (< 0.001)*

1 AH = arterial hypertension; cIMT = carotid intima-media thickness; EATV = epicardial adipose tissue volume; IQR = interquartile range; M = median; MV = mean value; SD = standard deviation; t = Student’s t-test; U = Mann–Whitney U test;

1* denotes significance at 99% level, respectively

TABLE 2.

Regression models for predicting carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) based on age, sex, body surface area (BSA) and the presence of hypertension

	Model 1 β (SE)	Model 2 β (SE)	Model 3 β (SE)
Constant	-0.221 (0.141)	-0.218 (0.124)	-0.144 (0.114)
Age	0.011 (0.008)	0.011 (0.008)
Gender (female)	0.001 (0.033)
BSA	0.260 (0.084)*	0.258 (0.074)*	0.313 (0.064)*
Hypertension (yes)	0.273 (0.026)*	0.273 (0.026)*	0.267 (0.026)*
R-squared	0.702	0.702	0.698
Adjusted R-squared	0.684	0.698	0.684
Number of observations	72	72	72

1 β (SE) = regression coefficient (standard Error); R-squared = proportion of variance in the dependent variable explained by the model; adjusted R-squared = Proportion of variance explained by the model, adjusted for the number of predictors;

1* p-value < 0.01

Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC) values were used to assess the performance of potential predictors for hypertension.
cIMT = carotid intima-media thickness; EATV = epicardial adipose tissue volume

TABLE 3.

Predictors of hypertension

Predictor	AUC (95% CI)	Threshold	Sen	Spec	PPV	NPV
EATV	0.992 (0.981, 0.992)	13.545	0.944	0.972	0.971	0.946
cIMT	0.958 (0.917, 0.958)	0.550	0.917	0.944	0.943	0.919

1 AUC = area under the curve; CI = confidence interval; cIMT = cardiac intima-media thickness; EATV = epicardial adipose tissue volume; NPV = negative predictive value; PPV = positive predictive value; Sen = sensitivity; Spec = specificity

TABLE 4.

Regression models for predicting cardiac intima-media thickness (cIMT) based on age, gender, body surface area (BSA), epicardial adipose tissue volume (EATV) and the presence of hypertension

	Model 1 β (SE)	Model 2 β (SE)
Constant	-0.285 (0.110)	-0.175 (0.042)
EATV	0.050 (0.007)*	0.053 (0.003)*
Age	-0.001 (0.006)
Gender (female)	0.014 (0.025)
BSA	0.087 (0.070)
Hypertension (yes)	0.008 (0.045)
R-squared	0.822	0.818
Adjusted R-squared	0.809	0.815
Number of observations	72	72

1 β (SE) = regression coefficient (atandard error); R-squared = Proportion of variance in the dependent variable explained by the model; Adjusted R-squared = Proportion of variance explained by the model, adjusted for the number of predictors;

1* p-value < 0.01

References

Authors

Metrics

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2025-0030 | Journal eISSN: 1581-3207 | Journal ISSN: 1318-2099

Journal RSS Feed

Language: English

Page range: 319 - 328

Submitted on: Dec 23, 2024

Accepted on: Mar 21, 2025

Published on: May 14, 2025

Published by: Association of Radiology and Oncology

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

Keywords:

epicardial adipose tissue,

arterial hypertension,

magnetic resonance imaging,

children,

atherosclerosis,

intima-media thickness

Related subjects:

Medicine,

Clinical medicine,

Radiology

© 2025 Nina Schweighofer, Natasa Marcun Varda, Primoz Caf, Mitja Rupreht, Vojko Kanic, Petra Povalej Brzan, published by Association of Radiology and Oncology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 59 (2025): Issue 3 (September 2025)

Assessment of epicardial adipose tissue volume and carotid intima-media thickness in children with primary arterial hypertension by magnetic resonance imaging

Figures & Tables

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 3.

TABLE 1.

TABLE 2.

FIGURE 4.

TABLE 3.

TABLE 4.

Paradigm

My account