# Characterization of Cardiac Fat in Atrial Fibrillation Patients Prior to Ablation Treatment
## 3 Results
### Factors Influencing Different Cardiac Fat Parameters  
Table 2 highlights a significant increase in both the end-systolic and end-diastolic phases of all EAT, PAT, and total cardiac fat areas with obesity. The end-diastolic fat area was found to be less than the end-systolic area in all cardiac fat parameters, which can be attributed to the compression effect of the myocardium on the fat during ventricular diastole. BMI, age, and sex's correlation with EAT, PAT, and total cardiac fat areas is demonstrated in Table 3. BMI exhibited a significant association with all parameters, particularly with total end-systolic area (r = 0.458, \(p\) < 0.001). Male sex had a higher \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline
**BMI** & **Normal (n = 45)** & **Overweight (n = 79)** & **Obese (n = 74)** & _p-Value_ \\ \hline Demographics & & & & \\ \hline Age (years) & 56.1 (\(\pm\)12.1) & 60.0 (\(\pm\)9.5) & 57.4 (\(\pm\)10.4) & 0.071 \\ Sex n (\% men) & 31 (15.5\%) & 56 (28.0\%) & 57 (28.5\%) & 0.187 \\ Sex n (\% women) & 14 (7.0\%) & 23 (11.5\%) & 17 (8.5\%) & \\ Height (cm) & 178.6 (\(\pm\)8.5) & 177.3 (\(\pm\)10.2) & 177.4 (\(\pm\)9.8) & 0.265 \\ Weight (kg) & 73.4 (\(\pm\)8.1) \(\dagger\) & 85.9 (\(\pm\)10.7) \(\ddagger\) & 107.1 (\(\pm\)15.3) \# & \(<\)0.001 ** \\ Body Mass Index, BMI (kg/m\({}^{2}\)) & 23.0 (\(\pm\)14.) \(\dagger\) & 27.2 (\(\pm\)15.) \(\ddagger\) & 34.0 (\(\pm\)32.) \# & \(<\)0.001 ** \\ Body Surface Area, BSA (m\({}^{2}\)) \({}^{\mathrm{a}}\) & 1.9 (\(\pm\)0.1) \(\ddagger\) & 2.1 (\(\pm\)0.2) \(\ddagger\) & 2.3 (\(\pm\)0.2) \# & \(<\)0.001 ** \\ Smoke \({}^{\mathrm{b}}\) & 1 (\(\pm\)1) & 1 (\(\pm\)1) & 2 (\(\pm\)1) & 0.327 \\ Caffe \({}^{\mathrm{c}}\) & 3 (\(\pm\)1) & 4 (\(\pm\)1) & 4 (\(\pm\)1) & 0.111 \\ Alcohol \({}^{\mathrm{d}}\) & 3 (\(\pm\)1) & 3 (\(\pm\)1) & 3 (\(\pm\)1) & 0.069 \\ \hline Comorbidities & & & & \\ \hline Diabetes & 0 & 3 (75\%) & 1 (25\%) & 0.333 \\ Hypertension \({}^{\mathrm{e}}\) & 3 (5.5\% & 19 (34.6\%) & 27 (49.1\%) & 0.086 \\ Hypercholesteremia & 1 (3.9\%) \(\dagger\) & 11 (42.3\%) & 13 (50\%) \# & 0.001 * \\ \hline Stroke Risk Score & & & & \\ \hline CHA\({}_{2}\)DS\({}_{2}\)-VASc Score & 1.4 (\(\pm\)0.9) & 1.7 (\(\pm\)1.0) & 1.8 (\(\pm\)1.01) & 0.059 \\ Score 0 (n) & 6 & 6 & 6 \\ Score 1 (n) & 20 & 29 & 29 & \\ Score 2 (n) & 14 & 27 & 22 & \\ Score 3 (n) & 4 & 12 & 11 & \\ Score 4 (n) & 1 & 4 & 5 & \\ Score 5 (n) & 0 & 1 & 1 & \\ \hline Medications & & & & \\ \hline Anti-arrhythmic & 15 (7.5\%) \(\dagger\) & 47 (23.5\%) & 43 (21.5\%) \# & 0.004 * \\ Anti-coagulant & 37 (18.5\%) & 69 (34.5\%) & 60 (30\%) & 0.182 \\ Beta-blocker & 26 (13\%) & 47 (23.5\%) & 45 (22.5\%) & 0.316 \\ ACE inhibitor or ARB & 7 (3.5\%) & 20 (10\%) & 29 (14.5\%) \# & 0.005 * \\ Stating & 8 (4\%) & 22 (11\%) & 19 (9.5\%) & 0.149 \\ Non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker & 5 (2.5\%) & 20 (10\%) \(\ddagger\) & 7 (3.5\%) & 0.006 * \\ \hline Lab results & & & & \\ \hline Total cholesterol (mmol/L) & 4.5 (\(\pm\)0.9) & 4.7 (\(\pm\)1.3) & 4.6 (\(\pm\)1.1) & 0.314 \\ Low-density lipoprotein, LDL (mmol/L) & 2.4 (\(\pm\)0.6) & 2.7 (\(\pm\)1.0) & 2.7 (\(\pm\)0.9) & 0.233 \\ High-density lipoprotein, HDL (mmol/L) & 1.5 (\(\pm\)0.4) & 1.3 (\(\pm\)0.5) & 1.2 (\(\pm\)0.3) \# & 0.038 * \\ Triglycerides, TG (mmol/L) & 1.3 (\(\pm\)0.6) & 1.7 (\(\pm\)0.8) & 1.6 (\(\pm\)0.7) & 0.129 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Demographic and clinical characteristics of atrial fibrillation patients in relation to BMI. association to PAT and total cardiac fat area, most notably with PAT area in 4-chamber view (r = \(-\)0.331, \(p\) \(<\) 0.001). Age weakly correlated with EAT end-systolic (r = 0.172, \(p\) = 0.016) and EAT end-diastolic (r = 0.19, \(p\) = 0.008) areas, but not with PAT. A higher PAT area in end-systolic and end-diastolic phases in males than females was observed across all BMI groups (see green brackets in Figure 1c-e).