Using Abdominal CT Data for Visceral Fat Evaluation

Background: Quantitative assessment of body fat is important for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases related to obesity, Computed tomography (CT) becoming the standard procedure for measuring the abdominal fat distribution.
Material and method: The retrospective study included 111 inpatients, who underwent routine abdominal CT exams in the Radiology Laboratory of SCJU Tg.Mures (2013). MPR MDCT (SOMATOM AS 64) data was processed using a custom written MATLAB R2009b software, ImageJ being used for tracing of the visceral fat area (VFA). Patient data (including blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides) were analyzed using MO Excel and GraphPad Inprism5.
Results: Visceral Fat percentage varied in population from 14.59–68.69 (SD = 11.83) with significant difference between sexes (male vs. female, 46.98 vs. 31.62, p <0.05). Cholesterol values >220 mg% and triglycerides >150 mg% are significantly associated with the VF percent (p <0.05). Overall there is a weak correlation between the lab variables and the measured fat, the strongest one being between triglycerides and the VFA (r = +0.23) and between age and VFA percentage (certain samples).
Conclusions: The technique used should decreases the human error in marking of the fat areas providing a better estimation of the VF/VF percentage. CT measured VF relates with certain lab tests. Further analysis, is required for a better use of CT in obesity related pathology diagnosis and treatment.