Anterior-Posterior Abdominal Diameter and Waist Circumference Have Comparable Predictive Ability for Visceral Fat...

Waist circumference measurement is commonly used as a method for predicting the visceral fat area. However, waist circumference is difficult to measure, and there is a large margin of error between measurements. Visceral fat is adipose tissue that accumulates in the abdominal cavity, and when it accumulates in excess, abdominal computed tomography reveals a prominent protrusion of the anterior-posterior diameter of the abdomen in a coronal section at the umbilicus level. Individuals with obesity often show forward abdominal protrusions. This study aimed to verify whether the anterior-posterior abdominal diameter can be used as a proxy for waist circumference to predict the visceral fat area.

A total of 231 patients with diabetes who were admitted to Tokyo Medical University Hospital and whose visceral fat area was measured using computed tomography were enrolled. Whether the waist circumference and anterior-posterior abdominal diameter were correlated with the visceral fat area was determined, and their ability to predict the visceral fat area was compared.

The visceral fat area was significantly correlated with both waist circumference (r = 0.759, p < 0.001) and anterior-posterior abdominal diameter (r = 0.774, p < 0.001), and the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves used to predict the visceral fat area were 0.923 (95% confidence interval: 0.878-0.967) and 0.939 (95% confidence interval: 0.905-0.974), respectively.

The anterior-posterior abdominal diameter can be used as an alternative to waist circumference for predicting the visceral fat area. This simple measurement method may serve as a very useful method in clinical practice by eliminating the variability of waist circumference measurements.