Epicardial Adipose Tissue Accumulation and Essential Hypertension in Non-Obese Adults

Background and Objectives: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is shown to be an important factor in the development of coronary artery disease, but numerous pathophysiological mechanisms of its action are still only partially understood. There is a lack of studies on its association with different grades of essential hypertension (EH). Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between size of EAT depots and the risk of EH taking into account its grade. Materials and Methods: Non-obese adult patients with various cardiovascular diseases were investigated: 157 of them had essential hypertension and 101 did not. Hypertensive patients were assigned to three groups according to the grade of h…