Persisting obesity starting before puberty is associated with stable intraabdominal fat during adolescence

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To observe the evolution of intraabdominal adipose tissue (IAT) in obese prepubertal children, who did not change their degree of obesity during adolescence and to evaluate its relationship with metabolic risk indexes (RI). DESIGN: Longitudinal study of 16 obese adolescents (eight male and eight female) in whom relative body weight (RBW) did not change signi®cantly and pubertal development was completed during the study period. MEASUREMENTS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan at lumbar level (L4) three times during a 4 y period. At basal and at four years biochemical assays for metabolic indexes. RESULTS: IAT did not differ signi®cantly over the three measurement times and showed signi®cant correlations between ®rst and second (r 0.66, P`0.005), ®rst and third (r 0.61, P`0.01) and second and third values (r 0.84, P`0.0001). Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) increased signi®cantly from basal to third evaluation (P`0.002). At baseline, IAT correlated signi®cantly with lipids (total and LDL cholesterol r 0.72, P`0.004), while at the end of the study, IAT correlated positively with insulin (fasting insulin r 0.55, P`0.008, insulin area after oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) r 0.60, P`0.03, fasting insulinaglucose r 0.67 P`0.006) and negatively with high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (r 7 0.55, P`0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Obesity achieved before puberty, and stable during adolescence, showed a relatively stable amount of IAT. In post pubertal children the relationship of IAT to clinically signi®cant risk factors resemble the pattern in obese adults.

Magnetic resonance imaging of abdominal adiposity in a large cohort of British children

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] However, much less attention has been paid to its measurement in children. [19][20][21] Little is known about the factors involved in the development of abdominal adipose tissue patterning, the age at which particular types of distribution are identifiable, the degree to which they are stable or vary over time, or the influence of lifestyle factors, gender or stage of maturation. Furthermore, the consequences of the type of adipose tissue patterning for childhood health or its impact on health as a future adult are largely unknown.…”

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.…”

Best single-slice location to measure visceral adipose tissue on paediatric CT scans and the relationship between anthropometric measurements, gender and VAT volume in children

“…5 VAT surrounds internal organs in the abdominal cavity. 5 Excessive VAT is a significant risk factor for insulin resistance, 6,7 metabolic syndrome, 8 cardiovascular disease 9,10 and diabetes. 4,11,12 VAT is related to these medical conditions through blood drainage, hormonal factors, inflammation and adipocytokines.…”