# Characterization of Cardiac Fat in Atrial Fibrillation Patients Prior to Ablation Treatment
## 3 Results
### Obesity and AF Recurrence  
Table 6 demonstrates that the frequency of AF recurrence was highest in overweight patients (36.4%), followed by obese (33.3%) and normal-weight patients (20.2%). However, there was no significant difference in AF recurrence rates among the groups (\(p\) = 0.298). Obese patients had the longest days until recurrence (80.1 \(\pm\) 131.1 days), followed by normal-weight (69.0 \(\pm\) 86.7 days) and overweight patients (53.3 \(\pm\) 59.3 days). The Kaplan-Meier graph in Figure 4 also illustrates this concept, showing a trend of longer time to AF recurrence in obese patients compared to normal and overweight patients. Subjects with recurrence demonstrated increased, but not significant, EAT (EAT end-systolic: 14.94 \(\pm\) 5.61 cm\({}^{2}\) vs. 14.84 \(\pm\) 7.42 cm\({}^{2}\), \(p\) = 0.945; EAT end-diastolic: 14.22 \(\pm\) 5.64 cm\({}^{2}\) vs. 12.9 \(\pm\) 5.86 cm\({}^{2}\), \(p\) = 0.337).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline
**BMI** & **Normal (n = 45)** & **Overweight (n = 79)** & **Obese (n = 74)** & \(p\)**-Value \({}^{*}\)** \\ \hline Frequency of & & & & \\ recurrence n(\%) & 40 (20.2\%) & 72 (36.4\%) & 66 (33.3\%) & 0.298 \\ Days until recurrence & 69.0 (\(\pm\)86.7) & 53.3 (\(\pm\)59.3) & 80.1 (\(\pm\)131.1) & 0.321 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 6: Atrial fibrillation recurrence in relation to BMI.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline
**Indexed** & **LV-EDV a** & **LV-EDV** & **LV-ESV** & **LV-Cardiac** & **LV-Mass** & **Indexed** & **LA-Volume** \\ \hline Epicardial Adipose & & & & & & \\ Tissue (EAT) & & & & & & & \\ \hline EAT End-systolic & & & & & & \\ area (cm\({}^{2}\)) & \(-\)0.166 \({}^{*}\), 0.02 & NS & NS & \(-\)0.220 \({}^{**}\), & 0.188 \({}^{**}\), 0.01 & \(-\)0.173 \({}^{*}\), & NS \\ \hline EAT End-diastolic & & & & & & \\ area (cm\({}^{2}\)) & \(-\)0.183 \({}^{*}\), 0.01 & NS & NS & \(-\)0.211 \({}^{**}\), & 0.157 \({}^{*}\), 0.03 & \(-\)0.168 \({}^{*}\), & NS \\ \hline Pericardial Adipose & & & & & & \\ Tissue (PAT) & & & & & & \\ \hline PAT Area in 4 & & & & & & \\ Chamber view (cm\({}^{2}\)) & NS & 0.159 \({}^{*}\), 0.03 & 0.179 \({}^{*}\), 0.01 & NS & 0.279 \({}^{**}\), & NS & 0.156 \({}^{*}\), 0.04 \\ \hline PAT End-systolic & & & & & & \\ area (cm\({}^{2}\)) & \(-\)0.146 \({}^{*}\), 0.04 & NS & 0.164 \({}^{*}\), 0.02 & \(-\)0.207 \({}^{**}\), & 0.224 \({}^{**}\), & NS & NS \\ \hline PAT End-diastolic & & & & & & \\ area (cm\({}^{2}\)) & NS & 0.176 \({}^{*}\), 0.02 & 0.194 \({}^{**}\), & 0.01 & 0.03 \({}^{*}\), & 0.249 \({}^{**}\), & NS & 0.174 \({}^{*}\), 0.02 \\ \hline Total cardiac fat & & & & & & & \\ (EAT + PAT) & & & & & & & \\ \hline Total end-systolic & & & & & & & \\ area (cm\({}^{2}\)) & \(-\)0.174 \({}^{*}\), 0.02 & NS & NS & \(-\)0.213 \({}^{**}\), & 0.217 \({}^{**}\), & \(-\)0.154 \({}^{*}\), & NS \\ \hline Total end-diastolic & & & & & & & \\ area (cm\({}^{2}\)) & NS & NS & 0.156 \({}^{*}\), 0.03 & \(-\)0.184 \({}^{*}\), & 0.224 \({}^{**}\), 0.01 & NS & 0.164 \({}^{*}\), 0.03 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 5: Correlation of cardiac fat parameters with structural and functional characteristics of the heart.