Correlation of abdominal fat ratio with hepatic CT enhancement

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of abdominal fat proportion on hepatic computed tomography (CT) enhancement. CT data for 87 patients (47 men, mean age 55.09±13.27 years; 40 women, mean age 60.43±11.29 years) were analyzed by linear regression to assess the association of patient age and abdominal fat proportion with adjusted maximal hepatic enhancement (aMHE), calculated by dividing the maximal hepatic enhancement by the dose of iodine injected per kilogram of patient body weight, for each gender. The abdominal fat ratio (AFR) at the umbilical level, calculated as the volume of abdominal fat divided by the total abdominal volume, was used as a marker of abdominal fat proportion. It was found that aMHE was positively correlated with AFR for men (r=0.48, P<0.01) and women (r=0.46, P<0.01) but not with patient age (r=-0.09 and -0.14, respectively, both P>0.05). Therefore, it was concluded that determining an iodine dose on the basis of AFR might be an optimal way to maintain constant hepatic enhancement.