Novel mechanism of heart disease: myocardial steatosis - (04/05/06)
Novel magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques are available to quantify intracellular lipid content in the myocardium. Recent studies show that excessive cardiac lipid accumulation increases with the degree of obesity. As shown in animal models, myocardial steatosis may contribute to the adverse structural and functional cardiac changes observed in obese patients. Myocardial lipid content may thus be a biomarker and a putative therapeutic target for cardiac disease in obesity.

















