BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common etiology of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). In recent years, epicardial fat tissue (EFT) has been found to be associated with the presence and chronicity of AF. However, the potential association between EFT and AIS in AF patients has not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of EFT on prediction of AIS in patients with AF. METHODS This cross-sectional study has included 80 AF patients with AIS and 80 age-gender matched AF controls without AIS. Echocardiographic evaluations were performed in the first three days after hospitalization between July 2019 and December 2019 in Sakarya University Education and Research Hospital. Echocardiographic measurement of EFT was conducted according to previously published methods. RESULTS In comparison with the control group, AF patients with AIS had significantly higher epicardial fat thickness (8.55 ± 1.08 vs 5.90 ± 1.35 mm; P < 0.0001). The multivariate regression analysis indicated that EFT independently predicts AIS in patients with AF. CONCLUSIONS The present study showed that, EFT is an independent predictor for the development of acute ischemic stroke in patients with AF.

中文翻译：

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心房纤颤患者的心外膜脂肪厚度是否与急性缺血性卒中有关？

背景技术心房颤动（AF）是急性缺血性卒中（AIS）的最常见病因。近年来，心外膜脂肪组织（EFT）已被发现与房颤的存在和长期性有关。然而，AF患者中EFT和AIS之间的潜在关联尚未完全阐明。这项研究的目的是评估EFT预测房颤患者AIS的有效性。方法这项横断面研究纳入了80例患有AIS的房颤患者和80例没有AIS的年龄性别匹配的房颤对照。在2019年7月至2019年12月之间在萨卡里亚大学教育和研究医院住院的前三天进行了超声心动图评估。根据先前公布的方法进行EFT的超声心动图测量。结果与对照组相比，AIS的房颤患者的心外膜脂肪厚度明显更高（8.55±1.08 vs 5.90±1.35 mm； P <0.0001）。多元回归分析表明，EFT独立预测房颤患者的AIS。结论本研究表明，EFT是AF患者急性缺血性中风发展的独立预测因子。