Body Muscle-to-Fat Ratio, Rather Than Fat-to-Muscle Ratio, Significantly Correlates With Measured Insulin Resistance in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Background: Insulin resistance (IR) assessment is important in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We thus compared body muscle-to-fat ratio (BMFR) and fat-to-muscle ratio (FMR) values against M/I values as clinical index of IR.Methods: Subject included 118 untreated T2DM patients. Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp examination was performed to calculate the M/I as index of IR. Body composition was measured by impedance analysis using InBody770.Results: Simple linear regression analyses confirmed correlations between M/I and BMFR (B: 0.756 (P < 0.01), coefficients of determination (R 2 ): 0.572, mean absolute error (MAE): 3.19, and root mean squared error (RMSE): 4.14), and between M/I and FMR (B: -0.601 (P < 0.01), R 2 : 0.362, MAE: 3.97, and RMSE: 5.05). Against the M/I values, BMFR also showed better goodness-of-fit than did FMR. In comparing correlation coefficients, the BMFR absolute B value was significantly larger than that of FMR (P = 0.027).Conclusions: BMFR is more useful than FMR in quantifying IR in patients with T2DM because the correlation between BMFR and the insulin sensitivity index M/I is significantly greater than that between FMR and M/I.

Body fat and muscle were associated with metabolically unhealthy phenotypes in normal weight and overweight/obesity in Yi people: A cross-sectional study in Southwest China

“…However, we regard the muscle-to-fat ratio as a more significant indicator because it provided the approach to reducing metabolic disorder risks by elevating the muscle mass and simultaneously reducing the fat mass. A previous study also suggested that the muscle-to-fat ratio was a better indicator than the fat-to-muscle ratio in quantifying insulin resistance ( 37 ).…”

The Association Between Lean-to-Fat Mass Ratio and Cardiometabolic Abnormalities: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study

“…Lean mass is primarily composed of skeletal muscle, an active metabolic tissue known for its role in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake [ 41 ] and has been positively related to metabolic health [ 41 - 43 ]. Consistent with this idea, other studies analyzing the muscle-to-fat mass ratio demonstrated its high diagnostic accuracy for MetS [ 44 ] and insulin sensitivity measured by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp [ 45 , 46 ]. Individuals presenting low values of this index were more likely to exhibit a higher prevalence of MetS and its components [ 44 ].…”