Assessment of visceral and subcutaneous obesity to understand the efficiency of adipose tissue in acute pancreatitis

Background: Fat accumulation in the visceral and subcutaneous regions can trigger fat necrosis during acute pancreatitis (AP). Aims: We investigated the role of visceral and subcutaneous fat in acute pancreatitis. In this study, we investigated the role of visceral and subcutaneous fat to understand the efficiency of adipose tissue in the AP. Materials and Methods: Computed tomography of 68 patients and 68 healthy at the level of L4-5 intervertebral disc were analyzed for body adiposity composition using designated software. Body subcutaneous and visceral composition was measured by using the designated software of the CT. Results: Visceral fat was higher in the control group (198 +/- 146) than the group of the AP (155 +/- 118) (P = 0.038), whereas the subcutaneous fat was found higher in the AP instead (292 +/- 133 to 139 +/- 102; P = 0,001). Visceral fat (B = 0,29; P = 0,0013), gender (male) (B = -0.3; P = 0.0122), age (B = 0.274; P = 0.0087), and complication (B = -0.229; P = 0.007) predicted the subcutaneous fat as the dependent variable. In the receiver operating characteristic (ROC), the area under curve was 0.562 (0.402-0.636; 95% CI, P = 0.038) for the visceral fat, while it was 0.906 (0.824-0.962; 95% CI, P < 0.0001) for the subcutaneous fat. Its cutoff was calculated as 183.7 for subcutaneous fat. Conclusion: Visceral fat analysis showed a contradiction according to subcutaneous fat that AP was strongly associated with subcutaneous one. The result supports that visceral and subcutaneous fat tissues should have different path of inflammation affecting the AP.

Automated summary

The study found that in acute pancreatitis, subcutaneous fat significantly increased while visceral fat decreased. The roles of visceral and subcutaneous fat in AP and their impact on fat necrosis should be studied in different research paths.