Fig. 5
Patient examples of 4-chamber oriented end-diastolic images for determination of epicardial and pericardial fat. a, b 55-year old male with high-dose steroid treated rheumatoid arthritis for more than 8 years. Patients BMI was 27.8 kg/m2, beside arterial hypertension he suffered from diabetes. CMR 4-chamber view revealed extensive epicardial fat deposition (shown in red) and pericardial fat deposition (shown in blue). c, d Age, sex and BMI matched steroid-naïve control to the high-dose steroid-treated patient in panels A/B with less amounts of epicardial and pericardial fat. e, f 49-year old steroid-naïve female (control group) with moderate epi- and pericardial fat deposition despite a high elevated BMI of 41.2 kg/m2 (obese class III). g, h 69-year old steroid-naïve female (control group) with a BMI of 26.8 kg/m2. Despite only moderate elevated BMI and no history of steroid intake, this patient showed considerable amounts of epi- and pericardial fat, underlining the lack of association between BMI and amounts of epi- and pericardial fat in the steroid-naïve control group