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Computed tomography visceral adipose tissue volume measurements of Italians. Predictive equations
F Armellini1, M Zamboni, G Perdichizzi
1Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Verona, Italy.
Objectives:
To evaluate total visceral adipose tissue (AT) volumes in relation to single slices of visceral AT area measured at different levels and to other simple anthropometric measurements.
Design:
Only outpatients examined in a metabolic unit were considered; subjects without conditions known to affect AT distribution who gave their informed consent were recruited.
Setting:
All subjects were hospitalized in the Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Messina.
Subjects:
90 adult subjects of which 18 men and 42 pre- and 30 post-menopausal women. Ages ranged from 18 to 69 years and body mass indexes ranged from 22 to 50.
Interventions:
The AT volume was calculated by computed tomography from the AT area of five scans and from the distances between these scans.
Results:
AT area at the level of the 2nd-3rd lumbar vertebra had by itself the highest predictive power in men (s.e. = 6.8%), in post-menopausal women (s.e. = 7.4%) and, together with age, in pre-menopausal women (s.e. = 14%). Of the non-radiological parameters it was waist circumference, together with age, which showed the highest predictive power in men (s.e. = 21%), pre-menopausal women (s.e. = 25%) and, together with height, in post-menopausal women (s.e. = 33%).
Conclusions:
A single scan measurement at the lumbar level was confirmed to be representative of total visceral AT volume. Waist circumference was the non-radiological parameter that best correlated with volume.