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

Background/ObjectivesTo 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.Subjects/MethodsA 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.ResultsFor 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).ConclusionsWe 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.

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of anthropometric measures for abdominal visceral adipose tissue volumes in patients with obesity. The study found that using sex-specific parameters (BMI or hip circumference for females, waist circumference for males) can effectively estimate abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue and total adipose tissue volumes in overweight or obese patients.