Quantification of visceral adipose tissue using lunar dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in Asian Chinese.

Abstract

To evaluate the new DXA VAT method on an Asian Chinese population by comparing to a reference method, computed tomography (CT). In total, 145 adult men and women volunteers, representing a wide range of ages (19-83 years) and BMI values (18.5-39.3 kg/m(2) ) were studied with both DXA and CT. The coefficient of determination (r(2) ) for regression of CT on DXA values was 0.947 for females, 0.891 for males and 0.915 combined. The 95% confidence interval for r was 0.940-0.969 for the combined data. The Bland-Altman test showed a VAT bias (CT as standard method) of 143 cm(3) for females and 379 cm(3) for males. Combined, the bias was 262 cm(3) with 95% limits of agreement of -232 to 755 cm(3) . While the current DXA method moderately overestimates the VAT volume for the study subjects, a further analysis suggested that the overestimation could be largely contributed to VAT movement due to breath-holding status. For Asian Chinese, VAT measured with DXA is highly correlated to VAT measured with CT. Validation of the DXA VAT tool using a reference method (e.g., CT) needs to carefully control the breath-holding protocol.