In this Letter to the Editor, Roos et al. studied myocardial adipose tissue and its association with cardiovascular risk variables in a healthy population of 573 postmenopausal women. Myocardial adipose tissue was assessed by computed tomography and was considered present if a hypodense lesion inside the myocardium was observed. A large proportion (72%) of women had myocardial adipose tissue. These women had a higher waist-to-hip ratio (p=0.03), greater triglyceride levels (p=0.06), and lower electrocardiographic evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy (p=0.06) than women without myocardial adipose tissue. In a multivariate model, only left ventricular hypertrophy and waist-to-hip ratio were significantly related to myocardial adipose tissue. These results underline the interrelationships between ectopic fat depots.
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