Assessment of abdominal fat development in young adolescents using magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the patterns of change and the best anthropometric indicators of intra-abdominal fat deposition in young adolescents from ages 11 ± 13 y. SUBJECTS: Subjects were 25 boys (mean age 13.7 AE 0.32 y) and 17 girls (mean age of 13.7 AE 0.23 y) who had taken part in a similar study 2 y earlier at ages 11.5 AE 0.33 y and 11.5 AE 0.27 y, respectively. METHODS: Intra-abdominal (IA) and subcutaneous adipose (SA) tissue areas and IAaSA ratio were determined through four tranverse magnetic resonance imaging scans on two occasions. Differences were investigated using t-tests and ANOVA. Skinfolds, girths and circumferences, body mass index and hydrostatic weighing were also recorded. Pearson correlation coef®cients and regression equations were calculated to determine the best anthropometric indicators of intra-abdominal fat deposition. RESULTS: Intra-abdominal fat and subcutaneous fat areas had signi®cantly increased in boys and girls by the second measure. Boys had deposited greater amounts of fat in intra-abdominal depots so that their intra-abdominalasubcutaneous ratio had increased signi®cantly from 0.31 to 0.39. This had reduced in girls from 0.39 to 0.35. However, patterns of change were variable within sexes. Truncal skinfold sites (r 0.54 ± 0.70) emerged as the best ®eld indicators of intra-abdominal fat deposition. CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of intra-abdominal and subcutaneous fat distribution are identi®able in pubescent children using magnetic resonance imaging. An acceptable indication is provided by truncal skinfolds.

Total and Regional Fat and Serum Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Lean and Obese Children and Adolescents

“…Previous reports in children and adolescents in which visceral adipose tissue (VAT) was measured have shown this depot to represent ϳ5% to 20% of the total abdominal adipose tissue, the remainder being subcutaneous fat (15,18,19,29,30). The ratio of VAT to SAAT is noticeably lower in obese children and adolescents compared with non-obese (18,31), indicating that at these ages, abdominal obesity is primarily a function of increases in SAAT.…”

Sex-Discordant Associations With Adiponectin Levels and Lipid Profiles in Children

“…Girls have a larger central fat mass than boys, despite similar waist circumference, and this could explain their relative insulin resistance in comparison with boys (39). During puberty, boys rapidly gain intra-abdominal fat (40); subsequently, adult men have similar or higher levels of intra-abdominal fat and insulin resistance than women (28,41). Differences in the timing of accumulation of intra-abdominal or intrahepatic fat could explain these age-related differences in insulin sensitivity, and also lipid levels, between males and females.…”

Crossvalidation of anthropometry against magnetic resonance imaging for the assessment of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue in children

“…[6][7][8][9][10] Since 1992, visceral adiposity has been evaluated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in children and it has been related to glucose metabolism, lipids abnormalities and hypertension. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] However, direct measurements of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) cannot be proposed for field studies due to their cost and technical difficulties. 21 Several anthropometric indexes have been suggested as indexes of VAT.…”

“…The few available studies on VAT and anthropometry measurements in children were performed in small groups. 7,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]20 Therefore, the aims of our study were: (1) to pool data from various investigators to evaluate the relationship between anthropometry and MRIderived abdominal fat in children, and, (2) to evaluate the effect of puberty and ethnicity on the relationship between anthropometry and MRI-derived abdominal fat.…”