title: Direct measurement of abdominal fat by dual photon absorptiometry.
abstract: We have assessed photon absorptiometry as a new technique for direct measurement of the abdominal fat percentage (AF%). The accuracy of the method was assessed in vitro with phantoms consisting of ox muscle, lard, and a mixture of both. The results showed good linearity (r = 0.999). The in vitro reproducibility and the in vivo reproducibility were s.d. = 2.0 and s.d. = 2.8 (AF%), respectively. The AF% was measured in 148 healthy post-menopausal women and found to correlate with other measurements of fatness, such as total body fat per cent (r = 0.82, P less than 0.001), body mass index (r = 0.79, P less than 0.001) and the ratio of waist-to-hip circumference (r = 0.59, P less than 0.001). The waist-to-hip ratio, an important predictor of cardiovascular disease, was more tightly correlated with AF% than with body mass index. We conclude that this method may be a useful new research tool for direct measurements of abdominal fat, a possible cardiovascular risk factor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Chemistry, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schlemmer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hassager
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haarbo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Christiansen
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008961:Models, Structural; D015203:Reproducibility of Results