Validation of ultrasound examination for assessment of the abdominal visceral fat in clinically serious obese patient.
BACKGROUND
Computerized tomography is the gold-standard for measurement of abdominal visceral fat. However, it is costly and involves submitting patients to ionizing radiation.


OBJECTIVE
To validate the use of ultrasonography in assessing abdominal visceral fat among clinically serious obese patients of both genders.


METHODS
The sample included adult patients with clinically serious obesity with body mass index of 40 kg/m2 or from 35 kg/m(2) to 40 kg/m2 with co-morbidities. Abdominal visceral fat thickness was measured using ultrasound and tomography. Two ultrasonographic exams were conducted to assess the interobserver reproducibility among a patient subsample. Validation was done by comparing these results with the tomographic findings.


RESULTS
The study included 13 patients (61.54% female) with an average BMI of 38.82 kg/m2. In terms of validation, the result obtained from applying the Pearson correlation coefficient was equal to 0.94 (p = 0.0005), showing a strong positive correlation between the two measurements. As for the results for reproducibility, the interobserver was equal to 0.822, with a confidence interval of 95% (-0.076 to 0.980), revealing good interobserver agreement. The average difference between the two ultrasound interobserver examination was equal to 0.10 ± 1.51 (p=0.8898) and so not significant. Interobserver bias was also not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The validation of ultrasonographic examination to replace tomographic method in assessing abdominal visceral fat among clinically serious obese patients was effective. The ultrasound measurement is independent of the examiner.
Heloisa Rodrigues
HR
de Gouvêa
Silvia Leite
SL
Faria
Orlando Pereira
OP
Faria
Mariane de Almeida
Mde A
Cardeal
Alexandre
A
Bezerra
Marina Kyiomi
MK
Ito
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014463:Ultrasonography