Excess abdominal adiposity remains correlated with altered lipid concentrations in healthy older women

OBJECTIVE: To determine associations between overall adiposity, absolute an d relative abdominal adiposity, and lipid concentrations in healthy older w omen. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data. SUBJECTS: Subjects were 21 healthy, untrained older women (71+/-1 y) enteri ng a randomized, controlled aerobic training program. MEASUREMENTS: Overall adiposity was assessed by anthropometry and the body mass index (BMI=kg/m(2)). Absolute and relative abdominal adiposity was det ermined by computed tomography (CT) and circumference measures. Easting ser um lipid concentrations of total-, high density lipoprotein (HDL)-, and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol (C) and triglycerides (TGs) were det ermined by standard enzymatic procedures. RESULTS: Compared to the measures of overall adiposity, we observed much st ronger correlations between measures more specific to absolute or relative abdominal adiposity and lipid concentrations. Visceral fat area was the str ongest correlate of HDL-C (r = - 0.75; P < 0.001) and the total-/HDL-C rati o (r = 0.86; P < 0.001). The abdomen-to-hip circumference ratio (AHR) was s trongly correlated with TGs (r=0.54; P < 0.01), HDL-C (r = - 0.69; P < 0.00 1), and the total-/HDL-C ratio (r = 0.75; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Excess abdominal adiposity remains an important correlate of li pid metabolism, even in healthy older women of normal weight. Thus, overall obesity is not a necessary condition for the correlation between excess ab dominal fat and metabolic risk among postmenopausal women.