Risk of significant coronary artery disease as determined by CT measurement of the distribution of abdominal adipose tissue.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this work was to determine if CT measurement of the distribution of abdominal adipose tissue is reproducible between observers and is associated with patient risk of significant coronary artery disease.


METHODS
We compared 11 male patients having abdominal CT who had a history of significant coronary artery disease and 9 male patients having abdominal CT without a history of coronary artery disease. Two observers, at the level of the umbilicus, independently measured the ratio of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) to total abdominal adipose tissue (TAT). VAT is equal to the sum total of intraperitoneal and retroperitoneal adipose tissue. TAT equals the sum total of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue. Measurements were made using a standard software package.


RESULTS
The mean ratio of VAT to TAT was significantly different (p < 0.05) between patients with a history of coronary artery disease (mean = 0.51, SD = 0.10, range = 0.38-0.69) and without a history of coronary artery disease (mean = 0.40, SD = 0.12, range = 0.23-0.51). Agreement in measurements between observers was excellent (mean difference = 0.01, range = 0.00-0.03, intraclass correlation = 0.99).


CONCLUSIONS
The measurement of the VAT/TAT ratio is highly reproducible between observers, and a high ratio is associated with patient risk of significant coronary artery disease.
Tirkes
Ahmet T
AT
Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Gottlieb
Ronald H
RH
Voci
Susan L
SL
Waldman
David L
DL
Masetta
Jeffrey
J
Conover
David L
DL
D000005:Abdomen; D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000368:Aged; D001823:Body Composition; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed