title: Cross-sectional fat area at the forearm in children and adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cross-sectional fat area (FA) and muscle area have been recently used to describe local body composition at the forearm in children and adolescents. The present analysis intends to characterize FA in a normal collective.
  
  
  METHODS
  FA was measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography in a study collective (DONALD study) of 296 children and adolescents. FA was analyzed in relation to fat mass (FM) measured by 4 skinfold thicknesses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  FA was significantly correlated with FM (r = 0.8). FA was positively associated with height in prepubertal individuals and pubertal females, but negatively associated with height in pubertal males. Median and range of FA are displayed for different height ranges and pubertal stages in males and females to enable analyses of FA in subgroups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because of the positive dependence of FA on height in prepubertal individuals and pubertal females, reference values of FA may be based on height. But reference values in pubertal males or in a mixed pubertal population should be rather based on pubertal stages than on height.
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fricke
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sumnik
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Remer
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stabrey
authors.forename: Baerbel
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tutlewski
authors.forename: Eckhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schoenau
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D001830:Body Surface Area; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005542:Forearm / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male