Anthropometric estimators of abdominal fat volume in adults with overweight and obesity

To evaluate anthropometric measures for the prediction of whole-abdominal adipose tissue volumes V_XAT (subcutaneous V_SAT, visceral V_VAT and total V_TAT) in patients with obesity.

A total of 181 patients (108 women) with overweight or obesity were analyzed retrospectively. MRI data (1.5 T) were available from independent clinical trials at a single institution (Integrated Research and Treatment Center of Obesity, University of Leipzig). A custom-made software was used for automated tissue segmentation. Anthropometric parameters (AP) were circumferences of the waist (WC) and hip (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and the (hypothetical) hip-to-height ratio (HHtR). Agreement was evaluated by standard deviations s_d% of percent differences between estimated volumes (using results of linear AP-V_XAT regression) and measured ones as well as Pearson's correlation coefficient r.

For SAT volume estimation, the smallest s_d% for all patients was seen for HC (25.1%) closely followed by HHtR (25.2%). Sex-specific results for females (17.5% for BMI and 17.2% for HC) and males (20.7% for WC) agreed better. VAT volumes could not be estimated reliably by any of the anthropometric measures considered here. TAT volumes in a mixed population could be best estimated by BMI closely followed by WC (roughly 17.5%). A sex-specific consideration reduced the deviations to around 16% for females (BMI and WC) and below 14% for males (WC).

We suggest the use of sex-specific parameters-BMI or HC for females and WC for males-for the estimation of abdominal SAT and TAT volumes in patients with overweight or obesity.