Visceral adipose tissue: relations between single-slice areas and total volume
- 1 August 2004
- journal article
- clinical trial
- Published by Elsevier in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- Vol. 80 (2) , 271-278
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/80.2.271
Abstract
Background: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT), which is linked with the metabolic consequences of obesity, is usually characterized by measuring VAT area at the L4–L5 vertebral interspace. However, the location of the slice with the strongest relation to VAT volume is not established. Objective: We sought to investigate the relations between cross-sectional VAT areas at different anatomic locations and VAT volume in a large, diverse sample of healthy subjects. Design: VAT volume was derived from slice areas taken at 5-cm intervals from magnetic resonance images in 121 healthy men [x̄ ± SD age: 41.9 ± 15.8 y; body mass index (BMI; in kg/m2): 26.0 ± 3.2; VAT: 2.7 ± 1.8 L] and 198 healthy women (age: 48.1 ± 18.7 y; BMI: 27.0 ± 5.4; VAT: 1.7 ± 1.2 L). Regression models were developed to identify the best single slice for estimating VAT volume. Results: The VAT area 10 cm above L4–L5 (A+10) in men (R2 = 0.932, P < 0.001) and 5 cm above L4–L5 (A+5) in women (R2 = 0.945, P < 0.001) had the highest correlation with abdominal VAT. R2 increased by only 3.8% in men and 0.5% in women with adjustment for age, race, scanning position, BMI, and waist circumference. Studies using A+10 in men and A+5 in women will require 14% and 9% fewer subjects, respectively, than those using slices at L4–L5 and will have equivalent power. Conclusion: Measurement of slice areas at A+10 in men and A+5 in women provides greater power for the detection of VAT volume differences than does measurement at L4–L5.Keywords
This publication has 66 references indexed in Scilit:
- Medium- versus long-chain triglycerides for 27 days increases fat oxidation and energy expenditure without resulting in changes in body composition in overweight womenInternational Journal of Obesity, 2003
- Is the gender difference in LDL size explained by the metabolic complications of visceral obesity?European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2002
- Association of visceral fat with coronary risk factors in a population-based sample of postmenopausal womenInternational Journal of Obesity, 2002
- Effects of sex on the change in visceral, subcutaneous adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in response to weight lossInternational Journal of Obesity, 1999
- Reproducibility of fat area measurements in young, non-obese subjects by computerized analysis of magnetic resonance imagesInternational Journal of Obesity, 1997
- Human Body Composition: Advances in Models and MethodsAnnual Review of Nutrition, 1997
- Magnetic resonance imaging provides new insights into the characterization of adipose and lean tissue distributionCanadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 1996
- Obesity: new insight into the anthropometric classification of fat distribution shown by computed tomography.BMJ, 1985
- Estimating the Error Rate of a Prediction Rule: Improvement on Cross-ValidationJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1983
- Tests for comparing elements of a correlation matrix.Psychological Bulletin, 1980