Half-body MRI volumetry of abdominal adipose tissue in patients with obesity

Abstract

Background

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent the whole volumes of abdominal subcutaneous (ASAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) of patients with obesity can be predicted by using data of one body half only. Such a workaround has already been reported for dual-energy x-ray absorption (DEXA) scans and becomes feasible whenever the field of view of an imaging technique is not large enough.

Methods

Full-body abdominal MRI data of 26 patients from an obesity treatment center (13 females and 13 males, BMI range 30.8–41.2 kg/m ², 32.6–61.5 years old) were used as reference (REF). MRI was performed with IRB approval on a clinical 1.5 T MRI (Achieva dStream, Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands). Segmentation of adipose tissue was performed with a custom-made Matlab software tool. Statistical measures of agreement were the coefficient of determination R ² of a linear fit.

Results

Mean ASAT _REF was 12,976 (7812–24,161) cm ³ and mean VAT _REF was 4068 (1137–7518) cm ³. Mean half-body volumes relative to the whole-body values were 50.8% (48.2–53.7%) for ASAT _L and 49.2% (46.3–51.8%) for ASAT _R. Corresponding volume fractions were 56.4% (51.4–65.9%) for VAT _L and 43.6% (34.1–48.6%) for VAT _R. Correlations of ASAT _REF with ASAT _L as well as with ASAT _R were both excellent ( R ² > 0.99, p < 0.01). Corresponding correlations of VAT _REF were marginally lower ( R ² = 0.98 for VAT _L, p < 0.01, and R ² = 0.97 for VAT _R, p < 0.01).

Conclusions

In conclusion, abdominal fat volumes can be reliably assessed by half-body MRI data, in particular the subcutaneous fat compartment.