Novel and Simple Ultrasonographic Methods for Estimating the Abdominal Visceral Fat Area

Objectives. To evaluate the abdominal visceral fat area (VFA), we developed novel ultrasonographic (US) methods for estimating. Methods. 100 male volunteers were recruited, and their VFA was calculated by two novel US methods, the triangle method and the ellipse method. The VFA calculated by these m...

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Main Authors: Takeharu Asano, Naoto Kubota, Norihiro Koizumi, Kazunori Itani, Tsuyoshi Mitake, Kazuhito Yuhashi, Hongen Liao, Mamoru Mitsuishi, Shigemi Takeishi, Toshiaki Takahashi, Shin Ohnishi, Shiro Sasaki, Ichiro Sakuma, Takashi Kadowaki
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2017-01-01
Series:International Journal of Endocrinology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/8796069
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Summary:Objectives. To evaluate the abdominal visceral fat area (VFA), we developed novel ultrasonographic (US) methods for estimating. Methods. 100 male volunteers were recruited, and their VFA was calculated by two novel US methods, the triangle method and the ellipse method. The VFA calculated by these methods was compared with the VFA calculated by CT. Results. Both the VFA calculated by the triangle method (r=0.766, p<0.001) and the ellipse method (r=0.781, p<0.001) showed a high correlation coefficient with the VFA calculated by CT. Also, the VFA calculated by our novel methods were significantly increased in subjects with one or more metabolic risk factors than in those without any risk factors. Furthermore, the correlation coefficients obtained using the two methods were enhanced by the addition of multiple regression analysis (with the triangle method, r=0.8586, p<0.001; with the ellipse method, r=0.8642, p<0.001). Conclusions. The VFA calculated by the triangle or ellipse method showed a high correlation coefficient with the VFA calculated by CT. These US methods are easy to use, they involve no radiation exposure, and the measurements can be conducted frequently. We hope that our simple methods would be widely adopted for the evaluation of VFA.
ISSN:1687-8337
1687-8345