COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY VISCERAL ADIPOSE-TISSUE VOLUME MEASUREMENTS OF ITALIANS - PREDICTIVE EQUATIONS

Objectives: To evaluate total visceral adipose tissue (AT) volumes in relation to single slices of visceral AT area measured at different le vels and to other simple anthropometric measurements. Design: Only out patients examined in a metabolic unit were considered; subjects withou t conditions known to affect AT distribution who gave their informed c onsent 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 f rom 22 to 50. Interventions: The AT volume was calculated by computed tomography from the AT area of five scans and from the distances betwe en these scans. Results: A Gamma area at the level of the 2nd-3rd lumb ar 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 paramete rs it was waist circumference, together with age, which showed the hig hest 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 conf irmed to be representative of total visceral AT volume. Waist circumfe rence was the non-radiological parameter that best correlated with vol ume.