Sonographic assessment of regional fat in HIV-1-infected people

The routine clinical assessment of lipodystrophy in HIV-1-infected patients is hindered by the absence of easy and reliable methods to measure regiona l fat. We used sonography to measure subcutaneous fat thickness at three re ference skin points (periumbilical, brachial, and malar) and intra-abdomina l fat thickness in HIV-1-infected patients with and without lipodystrophy a nd in healthy controls. Patients without lipodystrophy had less subcutaneou s fat than uninfected controls. Sonographic assessment of subcutaneous mala r and brachial fat in patients with lipodystrophy was more sensitive and sp ecific than that of intra-abdominal fat in the diagnosis of abnormal fat di stribution.