Evaluation of the Accuracy of Anthropometric Clinical Indicators of Visceral Fat in Adults and Elderly

Abstract

BackgroundVisceral obesity is associated with higher occurrence of cardiovascular events. There are few studies about the accuracy of anthropometric clinical indicators, using Computed Tomography (CT) as the gold standard. We aimed to determine the accuracy of anthropometric clinical indicators for discrimination of visceral obesity.MethodsCross-sectional study with 191 adults and elderly of both sexes. Variables: area of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) identified by CT, Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR), Conicity index (C index), Lipid Accumulation Product (LAP) and Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI). ROC analyzes.ResultsThere were a strong correlation between adiposity indicators and VAT area. Higher accuracy of C index and WHtR (AUC≥0.81) than the LAP and the VAI was observed. The higher AUC of LAP and VAI were observed among elderly with areas of 0.88 (CI: 0.766–0.944) and 0.83 (CI: 0.705–0.955) in men and 0.80 (CI: 0.672–0.930) and 0.71 (CI: 0.566–0.856) in women, respectively. The cutoffs of C index were 1.30 in elderly, in both sexes, with sensitivity ≥92%, the LAP ranged from 26.4 to 37.4 in men and from 40.6 to 44.0 in women and the VAI was 1.24 to 1.45 (sens≥76.9%) in men and 1.46 to 1.84 in women.ConclusionBoth the anthropometric indicators, C Index and WHtR, as well as LAP and VAI had high accuracy in visceral obesity discrimination. So, they are effective in cardiovascular risk assessment and in the follow-up for individual and collective clinical practice.

Razão cintura-estatura como marcador antropométrico de excesso de peso em idosos brasileiros

“…Studies 43,51,52 have also proven that WHtR has high precision in the discrimination of visceral obesity and is more effective than WC and WHR in cardiovascular risk assessment and follow-up in individual and collective clinical practice.…”

Measurements of Visceral Adiposity, Type-2 Diabetes and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease among Brazilian Men and Women

“…Surrogates of traditional indices of adiposity may perform better in predicting type-2 diabetes and CVD risk in specific populations, depending on sex, age, ethnicity and clinical condition [22]. In our study, we were able to find different associations according to visceral index assessed.…”

Obesidad y riesgo de infarto de miocardio en una muestra de varones europeos. El índice cintura-cadera sesga el riesgo real de la obesidad abdominal

“…El índice de conicidad hallado evidencia su importancia con una curva ROC superponible a los índices cintura-cadera y ligeramente superiores a los índices cintura-talla. El estudio INTERHEART no analiza la conicidad ni el ICUT, ambos evidenciados como indicadores de riesgo coronario con alta precisión en la discriminación de la obesidad visceral (31). Ectomorfia e IMC son indicadores generales compuestos que no discriminan la obesidad central, pero la ectomorfia inversa muestra un ABC notable y es mejor predictor que el IMC.…”