[Evaluation of visceral adipose in abdominal obesity and its clinical application]

To compare the values of measurements of obesity, including body mass index(BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), bioelectrical impedance analyzer(BIA) (fat mass and FAT%), ultrasonography (US) (subcutaneous fat distance and intraabdominal fat distance), and computed tomography (CT) in predicting the quantification of visceral adipose in abdominal obesity, and to evaluate the best cut-off point, sensitivity and specificity of these methods.

4,301 inpatients with hypertension, 2,155 males and 2,146 females, aged (56.4 +/- 13.8) (11 - 89), all with at least 1 risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, underwent simple body fat measurement. 3458 received BIA, 2,553 received B mode ultrasonography, 1039 underwent CT examination, and 659 received all kinds of examination. Abdominal visceral adipose area (VA) measured with CT >or= 100 cm(2) was the diagnostic criteria of visceral fat obesity (VFO). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the body fat indexes to determine the best cut-off point.

(1) It was accurate for WC, fat mass, BMI, intraabdominal fat distance, FAT%, and WHR were all accurate in diagnosis of VFO with the values of area under ROC of 0.730 - 0.867. WC was the most effective measurement. (2) The best cut-off points of these methods in predicting abdominal visceral obesity in males and females were as follows: WC: 89.5 cm and 85.5 cm for WC. 25 kg/m(2) and 26 kg/m(2) for BMI, 0.97 and 0.95 for WHR, 29% and 38% for fat composition, 18.6 kg, and 20.4 kg for fat mass, and 38.5 mm and 34.7 mm for intraabdominal fat distance.

WC, fat mass, BMI, intraabdominal fat distance, simple fat parameters, and WHR all can predict visceral adipose in abdominal obesity, in which WC is the best. For a given WC, the type of obesity can be determined by BIA and US.