BODY-COMPOSITION DETERMINED WITH MR IN PATIENTS WITH DUCHENNE MUSCULAR-DYSTROPHY, SPINAL MUSCULAR-ATROPHY, AND NORMAL SUBJECTS

Magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine total fat mass of pat ients with neuromuscular disorders, accounting for intramuscular fat, Nineteen hoys aged 9 to 12 (eight with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, th ree with type II spinal muscular atrophy and eight control subjects) u nderwent whole-body magnetic resonance imaging examination and anthrop ometric measurements, Whole-body fat mass was deduced from automated a nalysis of images normalized by a reference signal, Intramuscular and subcutaneous fat masses were deduced from manual analysis of twelve re ference slices, Affected children significantly differed from control subjects for higher total fat mass, mostly related to intramuscular fa t mass. Shorter protocols validated from whole-body data were shown to be more accurate than fat mass estimation derived from anthropometric measurements, (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.