Cardiac Systolic and Diastolic Function can be Improved and Epicardial Fat be can Decreased Over a Very Short Period of Time in Obese Patients without Heart Disease by the Very Low Calorie Diet

Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases [1-3]. Obesity also represents an independent risk factor for congestive heart failure [4,5]. The haemodynamic hallmarks of obesity, increased heart rate and stroke volume, are thought to be a compensatory adaptation to increased adipose tissue mass at the expense of left ventricular remodelling, which can later progress to heart failure [6]. Increasing obesity is associated also with increasing severity of right ventricular dysfunction in overweight and obese subjects independent of sleep apnea [7]. Fatty heart (cor adiposum) often seen in obese persons has been known for more than 300 years [6]. Obesity has reached pandemic proportions [2,3,6]. Because of these well known facts it is of great importance to study obesity related cardiac functions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of an eight week period of VLCD on heart function and the amount of epicardial adipose tissue in obese people without heart disease. Transthoracic echocardiography was used as a method for analysing cardiac function [8-12] and to measure the amount of epicardial fat [13].