[An assessment of abdominal fatty tissue distribution in obese children. A comparison between echography and computed tomography].
OBJECTIVE
Computed tomography (CT) and, more recently, ultrasound (US), have proved excellent tools for quantifying adipose tissue distribution. Body fat distribution is an important factor in the treatment of obesity and its complications. We investigated the correlation between CT and US measurements in pediatric obesity.


METHODS
Forty obese children and adolescents aged 4.1-14.8 years were submitted to CT and US. Intra-abdominal, subcutaneous and total body fat were calculated (in cm2), with the CT image analysis software. The rectus muscle-spine and rectus muscle-aorta distances, as indicative of visceral fat thickness, were measured on US images with(out) compression. The distance between skin-fat and fat-rectus muscle interfaces was measured as subcutaneous fat thickness. We also compared US-CT findings with other morphometric variables--i.e., patient's (ideal) body weight and skin fold measures.


RESULTS
At US, the rectus muscle-aorta and rectus muscle-spine distances ranged 2.4-7.5 cm (mean: 4.47 cm) and 3.6-8.9 cm (mean: 5.79 cm), respectively. The skin-rectus muscle distance ranged 1.2-7.5 cm (mean: 3.14 cm). A statistically significant correlation was found between the CT measurement of visceral fat and the aorta-rectus muscle and rectus muscle-spine distances (r = 0.80 and 0.74, respectively). The US measurements of subcutaneous fat were correlated with CT subcutaneous fat area (r = 0.82). No correlation was found between overweight, as calculated by body mass index, and CT or US fat.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that US is as useful as CT in evaluating body fat distribution in pediatric obesity.
Ferrozzi
F
F
Istituto di Scienze Radiologiche, Università degli Studi, Parma. fferrozzi@nets.it
Zuccoli
G
G
Tognini
G
G
Castriota-Scanderbeg
A
A
Bacchini
E
E
Bernasconi
S
S
Campani
R
R
D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011860:Radiography, Abdominal / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data