Journal of Clinical Medicine Research, ISSN 1918-3003 print, 1918-3011 online, Open Access
Article copyright, the authors; Journal compilation copyright, J Clin Med Res and Elmer Press Inc
Journal website https://jocmr.elmerjournals.com

Original Article

Volume 18, Number 2, February 2026, pages 75-82

The Role of Epicardial Adipose Tissue in the Development of Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Figures

↓  Figure 1. Flowchart of selection of studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis. MRI: magnetic resonance imaging.
Figure 1.
↓  Figure 2. Difference in total epicardial fat (in mL) in the group of patients with AF compared to the group without AF. AF: atrial fibrillation; SMD: standardized mean difference; CI: confidence interval.
Figure 2.
↓  Figure 3. Funnel plot for studies that evaluated the relationship between total EAT and AF. EAT: epicardial adipose tissue; AF: atrial fibrillation.
Figure 3.
↓  Figure 4. Difference in periatrial epicardial fat (in mL) in the group of patients with AF compared to the group without AF. AF: atrial fibrillation; SMD: standardized mean difference; CI: confidence interval.
Figure 4.

Table

↓  Table 1. Characteristics of the Included Studies
 
Author (year) Country Study design N N with AF Mean age (years) Male (%) BMI (kg/m2) Method Object
BMI: body mass index; AF: atrial fibrillation; CT: computed tomography.
Tsao et al. 2016 [14] Republic of China Cross-sectional 88 68 63.4 76.5 25.2 CT Periatrial
Oba et al. 2018 [15] Japan Cross-sectional 316 204 64.0 72.0 25.8 CT Total
Maeda et al. 2018 [16] Japan Cross-sectional 218 61 64.9 67.2 26.0 CT Total
Monno et al. 2018 [17] Japan Cross-sectional 104 23 62.0 65.0 24.1 CT Total and periatrial
Ozbek et al. 2018 [18] Turkey Cross-sectional 149 35 69.2 65.7 29.3 CT Total
Nikitin et al, 2021 [19] Russia Cross-sectional 60 45 55.2 55.5 31.3 CT Total and periatrial
Yang et al, 2022 [20] China Cross-sectional 348 174 64.0 63.8 24.6 CT Total and periatrial
Sun et al, 2022 [21] China Cross-sectional 49 24 60.4 58.3 25.7 CT Periatrial
Shao et al, 2022 [22] China Cross-sectional 276 214 62.0 66.8 25.1 CT Periatrial
Jian et al, 2022 [23] China Cross-sectional 337 235 55.1 53.0 25.3 CT Total
Ilyushenkova et al, 2022 [24] Russia Cross-sectional 43 19 43.8 89.4 27.9 CT Total
Marinelli et al, 2023 [25] Italy Cross-sectional 62 31 27.9 90.3 24.3 CT Total and periatrial
Deng et al, 2023 [26] China Cross-sectional 67 24 61.6 79.2 25.7 CT Total