Daniel J. Friedman, MD; Na Wang, MA; James B. Meigs, MD, MPH; Udo ...... Mahabadi AA, Massaro JM, Rosito GA, Levy D, Murabito JM, Wolf PA, O'Donnell.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Pericardial Fat is Associated With Atrial Conduction: The Framingham Heart Study Daniel J. Friedman, MD; Na Wang, MA; James B. Meigs, MD, MPH; Udo Hoffmann, MD; Joseph M. Massaro, PhD; Caroline S. Fox, MD; Jared W. Magnani, MD, MSc
Background-—Obesity is associated with altered atrial electrophysiology and a prominent risk factor for atrial fibrillation. Body mass index, the most widely used adiposity measure, has been related to atrial electrical remodeling. We tested the hypothesis that pericardial fat is independently associated with electrocardiographic measures of atrial conduction. Methods and Results-—We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 1946 Framingham Heart Study participants (45% women) to determine the relation between pericardial fat and atrial conduction as measured by P wave indices (PWI): PR interval, P wave duration (P-duration), P wave amplitude (P-amplitude), P wave area (P-area), and P wave terminal force (P-terminal). We performed sex-stratified linear regression analyses adjusted for relevant clinical variables and ectopic fat depots. Each 1-SD increase in pericardial fat was significantly associated with PR interval (b=1.7 ms, P=0.049), P-duration (b=2.3 ms, P
