Presence of Intramyocardial Fat Tissue in the Right Atrium and Right Ventricle – Postmortem Human Analysis

Kristina Selthofer-Relatić
2018 Acta Clinica Croatica  
Histologic and radiologic studies describe intramyocardial fat tissue as a normal fi nding or as part of cardiac pathology. Th e role of fat cells within the myocardium is not fully understood. Th e aim of this study was to assess fat tissue distribution in the myocardium of right atrium (RA) and right ventricle (RV) and age diff erences in subjects free from cardiac disease. Th e study included 10 males without cardiac disease divided into two groups according to age (below/above 50 years). Th
more » ... ree cross sections were performed (RV free wall and apex and RA free wall) with histomorphological analysis on digital photographs. Th e shares of total myocardial fat (TMF), perivascular fat (PVF) and non-perivascular (nPVF) fat were calculated. Samples from the older group had larger amounts of fat in the epicardium and myocardium, without statistically signifi cant diff erence (TMF p=0.847, PVF p=0.4 and nPVF p=0.4). Th e largest quantities of fat tissue were found in the RV apex samples (14.9%), followed by RV free wall (7.5%) and RA (4.5%), where total apical RV fat share was signifi cantly larger than in RA sample (p=0.044). Intramyocardial fat cells were present within the non-diseased RA and RV in all samples, mostly in the apex. Further investigations on age diff erence, eff ect of visceral obesity and sex diff erences are needed.
doi:10.20471/acc.2018.57.01.15 fatcat:fp7ua7qla5ba7bjznqbab67wfa