Quantification of Pericardial and Epicardial Fat using ImageJ

• Published in: Journal of physics. Conference series Vol. 2019; no. 1; pp. 12078 - 12084
• Main Authors: Yasmin, N Z, Tohir, R S, Prajitno, P, Soejoko, D S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.10.2021
• ISSN: 1742-6588; 1742-6596
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/2019/1/012078

Abstract Research towards finding new Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) predictors have developed in recent years. One potential CAD predictors are epicardial fat due to its location and function. Another adipose layer of interest is the pericardial fat that is the fat anterior to the epicardial fat. The single slice area method has been developed to estimate volume using a single slice area. In this preliminary study, the aim is to quantify epicardial and pericardial fat using ImageJ and to evaluate the relationship between the fat area and the volume measured. The relationship between the fat parameters, age and gender were evaluated. The samples were cardiac CT images of 50 patients who underwent non-contrast cardiac examination using a 64 CT scanner. ImageJ was used to quantify epicardial and the pericardial fat area and the volume was obtained by the sum of four slices multiplied by the slice thickness. The Pericardial fat area showed a high correlation with the pericardial fat volume (r=0.92, p<0.01) using the single slice area method. Epicardial fat area and volume showed a moderate significant relationship with age. Epicardial volume in female patients was significantly higher than in male patients. Quantification of epicardial and pericardial fat was highly reproducible using ImageJ.