Is visceral adipose tissue or subcutaneous adipose tissue a risk factor for atherosclerotic heart disease in familial mediterranean fever?

Bozkurt, Erhan; Kaya, Furkan; Erturk, Adem; Balci, Aydin; Atay, Emre

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoimmune chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Adipose tissue (AT) is an endocrine organ that causes systemic inflammation. Systemic inflammation is an important risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. AT beneath the skin is called subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and the AT surrounding internal organs is called visceral adipose tissue (VAT). This study aimed to evaluate whether VAT and SAT areas differed in FMF patients compared to healthy controls and to evaluate the correlations among VAT and SAT areas with cardiovascular risk factors in FMF patients. This study was planned retrospectively. 46 patients in FMF group and 54 patients in control group were included the study. Laboratory data and demographic characteristics were detected from the hospital file system and recorded. The L3 vertebra reference point was selected to standardize the measurement location in all patients. VAT and SAT areas were separately determined as cm² . VAT area was significantly higher in FMF group (p<0.001). In FMF group, we found significantly positive correlation between insulin resistance (r=0.61, p˂0.001), systolic blood pressure (r=0.38, p˂0.05), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (r=0.62, p˂0.001), triglyceride (TG) (r=0.49, p˂0.001) and VAT. Negative correlation was found between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and VAT (r=-0.71, p˂0.001). VAT area was increased as the duration of diagnosis increased (r=0.80, p˂0.001). In conclusion, this study revealed that in FMF patients, VAT area was higher than control and associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Increased awareness of this risk can lead to some measures to be taken to prevent possible diseases.

ADIPOSE tissues; FAMILIAL Mediterranean fever; ATHEROSCLEROSIS risk factors; CARDIOVASCULAR diseases risk factors; HDL cholesterol

Medicine Science, 2021, Vol 10, Issue 3, p890

2147-0634

Academic Journal

10.5455/medscience.2021.03.092