Ultrasound as a Tool to Assess Body Fat

Abstract

Ultrasound has been used effectively to assess body fat for nearly 5 decades, yet this method is not known as well as many other body composition techniques. The purpose of this review is to explain the technical principles of the ultrasound method, explain the procedures for taking a measurement and interpreting the results, evaluate the reliability and validity of this method for measuring subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue, highlight the advantages and limitations of ultrasound relative to other body composition methods, consider its utility to clinical populations, and introduce new body composition-specific ultrasound technology. The focus of this review is adipose, although various tissue thicknesses (e.g., muscle and bone) can be measured with ultrasound. Being a portable imaging device that is capable of making fast regional estimates of body composition, ultrasound is an attractive assessment tool in instances when other methods are limited. Furthermore, much of the research suggests that it is reliable, reproducible, and accurate. The biggest limitations appear to be a lack of standardization for the measurement technique and results that are highly dependent on operator proficiency. New ultrasound devices and accompanying software designed specifically for the purpose of body composition assessment might help to minimize these limitations.

Abdominal Adiposity Distribution Quantified by Ultrasound Imaging and Incident Hypertension in a General Population

“…11,12 A more accurate quantification of VAT and SAT can be acquired with the use of computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but these techniques are costly, time consuming, limited by their accessibility, and have radiation issues (CT). 13 Opposed to these modalities, ultrasound imaging is cheap, fast, and easily accessible, 14 and it produces reproducible and valid estimates of VAT and SAT, and hence a suitable modality to use in large epidemiological studies. [15][16][17][18][19] A few prospective studies have shown positive associations between VAT, and to some degree SAT, and metabolic risk factors, including hypertension.…”

Body composition in clinical practice

“…Still now BF-US is not well known as techniques. US, based on echoes reflection, represents a two-dimensional greyscale image, between white (strong reflections) and black (no echoes), showing borders of the skin-subcutaneous fat, fat-muscle and muscle-bone interfaces [29]. Although the US procedures can be considered relatively simple, the interpretation is more difficult and subjective.…”

Influence of Male Obesity on Fertility

“…Th e terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases, as well as other health problems 14 . Numerous simple and accessible anthropometric techniques have been developed to evaluate the body fat content such as BMI, waist to hip ratio (WHR), WC, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), ultrasound and skinfold measurements [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . Traditionally, BMI has been the most widely used method in classifying overweight and obesity in adult populations because it provides a relatively good estimate of the risks associated with developing diseases that occur more frequently in people with higher body fat content.…”

“…Th e biggest limitations of using ultrasound as a body composition technique appear to be the lack of standardization in the measurement technique and the results highly dependent on the operator profi ciency. Th erefore, the availability of new, user-friendly devices with the accompanying software, designed specifi cally for body composition analysis, may be desirable in the future 22,23 . Furthermore, several other less available techniques have also been suggested, such as air displacement plethysmography (ADP), dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).…”