Abstract
Quantification of abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is important to understand obesity-related comorbidities. We hypothesized that dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurements of VAT would correlate with traditional gold standards of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) in older men. Deming regression and Bland–Altman plots were used to assess the agreement between VAT measured simultaneously by DXA and MRI (n=95) in a cohort of older males participating in a randomized trial of testosterone replacement for diabetes. We also correlated DXA with single-slice CT (n=102) in a cohort of older males undergoing testosterone deprivation for prostate cancer. Lunar Prodigy DXA scanners using enCORE software was used to measure VAT. DXA VAT volume strongly correlated with MRI VAT volume (r=0.90, P<0.0001) and CT VAT area (r=0.83, P<0.0001). As DXA assesses VAT volume in a smaller compartment than MRI, Bland–Altman analysis demonstrated DXA systematically underestimated VAT by an approximately 30% proportional bias. DXA VAT volume measured by Lunar Prodigy DXA scanners correlate well with gold standard MRI and CT quantification methods, and provides a low radiation, efficient, cost-effective option. Future clinical studies examining the effects of interventions on body composition and regional fat distribution may find DXA an appropriate volumetric method to quantify VAT.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by an National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) project grant (#1006407). ASC is supported by a NHMRC postgraduate scholarship (#1017233) to undertake this project as part of a PhD. MG is supported by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (#1024139). enCORE software version 16 was provided by MedTel, agents for GE Lunar in Australia. MedTel and GE Lunar were not involved in the design, selection of study participants, analysis of the data, interpretation of the results or the manuscript preparation.
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Cheung, A., de Rooy, C., Hoermann, R. et al. Correlation of visceral adipose tissue measured by Lunar Prodigy dual X-ray absorptiometry with MRI and CT in older men. Int J Obes 40, 1325–1328 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.50
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.50
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