Figure 4.

Epicardial thickness on US: scheme of the standard measurement on the left parasternal long-axis view. The thickness of the epicardial fat is depicted as the blue double arrow. The epicardial fat (yellow area) is located in the space between the outer wall of the myocardium at the right ventricle (pink line) and the visceral layer of the pericardium (black line). This measurement is obtained with the parasternal long-axis view, at the end of the systole. The landmark for the measurement is the plane of the ultrasound beam (red discontinuous line), which has to be as perpendicular as possible to the aortic annulus (red arrows). RV, right ventricle; LV, left ventricle; LA, left atrium; Ao, aorta.