Measurement of visceral fat and abdominal obesity by single-frequency bioelectrical impedance and CT: a cross-sectional study
Karen Hind,
Lin Ma,
Li Xu,
Zhengyang Xu,
Yandong Liu,
Chengxi Yan,
Ruopei Yang,
Zhe Guo,
Aihong Yu,
Xiaoguang Cheng,
Chunhong Hu,
Giuseppe Guglielmi
Affiliations
Karen Hind
Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK
Lin Ma
Department of Radiology, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, Beijing, China
Li Xu
1 Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
Zhengyang Xu
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Yandong Liu
Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Fourth Medical College of Peking University, Beijing, China
Chengxi Yan
Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Fourth Medical College of Peking University, Beijing, China
Ruopei Yang
Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Fourth Medical College of Peking University, Beijing, China
Zhe Guo
Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Fourth Medical College of Peking University, Beijing, China
Aihong Yu
Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Fourth Medical College of Peking University, Beijing, China
Xiaoguang Cheng
Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Fourth Medical College of Peking University, Beijing, China
Chunhong Hu
Department of Oncology, the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan, China
Giuseppe Guglielmi
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Foggia University School of Medicine, University Campus of Barletta, Dimiccoli Hospital, Foggia, Italy
Objectives The measurement of visceral fat (VF) is clinically important for the identification of individuals at high risk of visceral obesity-related health conditions. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a widely available and frequently used body composition assessment method, but there have been few validation studies for the measurement of VF. This validation study investigated agreement between BIA and CT for the assessment of VF in adults.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting Between 2015 and 2016 in China.Participants A total of 414 adults (119 men and 295 women) aged 40–82 years.Primary and secondary outcome measures CT-visceral fat area (VFA) was derived at the L2-3 and umbilicus level and VFA cut-offs for visceral obesity applied. BIA measurements of visceral fat level were compared with CT VFA findings using scatter plots and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves.Results Scatter plots showed poor agreement between BIA and CT-derived visceral fat measurements in both sexes (R=0.387–0.636). ROC curves gave optimum figures for sensitivity and specificity of 65% and 69% in women and 76% and 70% in men, respectively, for BIA to discriminate between adults with normal levels of VF and those with visceral obesity determined by CT.Conclusion BIA has limited accuracy for the assessment of VF in adults in practice when compared with the criterion method.
