Pericardial Fat Thickness Increases with Greater Burden of Adverse Metabolic Factors Among Adults with Normal-Range Body Mass Index: The Framingham Heart Study

Introduction: Greater burden of pericardial fat is associated with increased body mass index (BMI). Obesity is associated with unfavorable metabolic characteristics such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and glucose intolerance. We sought to determine whether unfavorable metabolic profile alone, in the absence of excess BMI, was itself associated with increased pericardial fat thickness (PFT). Methods:From the 1,794 Framingham Offspring cohort adults who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), we identified 446 free of non-skin cancer and prevalent clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) who had 18.5≤BMI2and complete covariates. We calculated a metabolic score (MS) based on ATPIII criteria where 1 point was assigned for each of: a) fasting glucose≥100 mg/dL or diabetes; b) SBP≥130 or DBP≥85 mmHg or antihypertensive treatment; c) triglycerides≥150 mg/dL; d) HDL cholesterol \u3c40(M)/ Results: PFT increased with worsening metabolic score at the fixed locations of the apical and mid-level RV, as well as at maximal PFT. On pairwise comparisons, only the MS3+ group had PFT that was consistently significantly greater than that of MS0. Conclusions: In a community-dwelling cohort, among participants who were free of cancer and clinical CVD and had normal-range or BMI, worsening metabolic profile was associated with increased pericardial fat thickness

VERA Observation of the W49N H2O Maser Outburst in 2003 October

We report on a strong outburst of the W49N H2O maser observed with VERA. Single-dish monitoring with VERA 20 m telescopes detected a strong outburst of the maser feature at V_LSR = -30.7 km/s in 2003 October. The outburst had a duration of ~100 days and a peak intensity of 7.9 x 10^4 Jy, being one of the strongest outbursts in W49N observed so far. VLBI observations with the VERA array were also carried out near to the maximum phase of the outburst, and the outburst spot was identified in the VLBI map. While the map was in good agreement with previous studies, showing three major concentrations of maser spots, we found a newly formed arc-like structure in the central maser concentration, which may be a shock front powered by a forming star or a star cluster. The outburst spot was found to be located on the arc-like structure, indicating a possible connection of the present outburst to a shock phenomenon.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures included, to appear in PASJ letter (Vol.56, #3, 2004 June

Feasibility of quantifying the myocardial blood flow with a shorter acquisition time using O-15 water PET.

Purpose: The quantification of coronary flow reserve（CFR）calculated as the ratio of the myocardial blood flow（MBF）during adenosine triphosphate（ATP）stress to MBF at rest is a useful method for evaluating the functional severity of coronary artery disease（CAD）using 15O-H2O positron emissiontomography（PET）. The shorter acquisition time may reduce dyspnea and other side effects of ATP stress and may also reduce the effect of body movements during data acquisition. However, the impact of the shorter data acquisition time on the accuracy of MBF quantification has not been studied. In this retrospective study, we evaluated the accuracy of the MBF and CFR values obtained with shorter scan times using 15O-H2O PET.Methods: Thirty patients suspected of having CAD（22 males, 8 females; age 56.5±8.8 yrs）and 17 healthy controls（17 males; age 27.7±6.2 yrs）underwent PET during rest and PET with ATP stressdynamic 15O-H2O. The MBF was estimated with a one-tissue compartment model analysis. MBF and CFR values were calculated using the first 2-min and 3-min PET data of 15O-H2O as shorter data acquisitions. These data were compared to the standard 6-min PET acquisition data.Results: With the use of the 3-min data, the regions of interest（ROIs）in the left ventricular（LV）chamber and myocardium could be set for all of the subjects. The intraclass correlation coefficients （ICCs）between the 3-min data and 6-min data of the rest MBF, stress MBF and CFR were 0.869,0.870, and 0.819 in the patients, and 0.912, 0.910, and 0.930 in the controls. The 3-min CFR data showed a significant difference between the patients and controls（2.22±1.02 vs. 4.02±1.50, p＜0.01）, as did the 6-min data（2.19±0.92 vs. 4.16±1.39, p＜0.01）. However, the CFR based on 2-min data did not show a significant difference（1.96±1.66 vs. 2.73±1.03, p=0.088）. Using a receiver operating characteristic（ROC）analysis, we observed that both the 3-min and 6-min CFR data could be used to separate the CAD patients and controls.Conclusions: A 3-min, but not 2-min, scan with 15O-H2O PET can be used for the quantitative evaluation of MBF and CFR.Keywords: 15O-H2O, Myocardial blood flow, Pharmacological stress, Positron emission tomography,Shorter acquisition timeAnn Nucl Cardiol 2016；2（1）：0-