title: The advantages and limitations of cross-sectional body composition analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cross-sectional (C-S) imaging is now commonly used to measure body composition in clinical studies. This review highlights the advantages, limitations and suggested future directions for this technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Current understanding of C-S imaging reproducibility, tissue identification and segmentation methods, comparison between imaging techniques and estimates of whole body composition using a single image are described.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  C-S imaging can reliably measure muscle and fat distribution and uniquely discriminate between intra-abdominal organ and muscle component of fat-free mass. It precisely tracks changes within an individual, but is less able to distinguish true differences in whole body estimates between individuals.
authors: Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences (Surgery), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
authors: Alisdair J
authors: AJ
authors: MacDonald
authors: Carolyn A
authors: CA
authors: Greig
authors: Vickie
authors: V
authors: Baracos
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000273:Adipose Tissue; D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology*; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*