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Reproducibility of regional DEXA examinations of abdominal fat and lean tissue
Kaj Tallroth1, Jyrki A Kettunen, Urho M Kujala
1ORTON Orthopaedic Hospital, ORTON Foundation, Jyväskylä, Finland. kaj.tallroth@fimnet.fi
Objective:
The aim of this study was to develop and test the validity of a new repeatable method to delimit abdominal areas for follow-up of fat mass (FM) and lean tissue mass (LM) in DEXA examinations.
Methods:
37 male volunteers underwent two DEXA examinations. Total body FM and LM measurements and corresponding abdominal measurements in a carefully defined region were calculated from the first scan. After repositioning of the subjects and a second scan, the delimited region was copied and the abdominal tissues re-calculated.
Results:
The mean LM of the abdominal area was 2.804 kg (SD 0.556), and the mean FM was 1.026 kg (SD 0.537). The intra-class correlation coefficient for the repeated abdominal LM, FM, and LM/FM ratio measurements was 0.99. The mean difference (bias) for the repeated abdominal LM measurements was -13 g (95% confidence interval (CI) -193.0 to 166.8), and for the repeated abdominal FM measurements it was -35 g (95% CI -178.9 to 108.5).
Conclusions:
The results indicate that regional DEXA is a sensitive method with excellent reproducibility in the measurements of the abdominal fat and lean tissues. The method may serve as a useful tool for evaluation and follow-up of various dietary and training programmes.
