title: Ectopic fat assessment focusing on cardiometabolic and renal risk.
abstract: It is well known that people with high levels of body fat are at higher risk for developing diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disorders. Since individuals who are slightly overweight, or even individuals of normal weight, can vary in body fat distribution, their metabolic profiles and the degree of association of these profiles with cardiometabolic risk factors may differ. Fat distribution might be more of a predictive factor for cardiorenometabolic risk than obesity itself, which has led researchers to investigate whether ectopic fat accumulation may partially account for the development of cardiorenometabolic disorders. In addition to visceral obesity, fat can accumulate in the liver and muscle, and these intrahepatic and intramuscular lipid stores are associated with insulin resistance and adverse metabolic phenotypes. More recently, pericardial fat, perivascular fat, and perirenal fat were found to be associated with coronary atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, and kidney damage, respectively. Thus, regional fat distribution may play a key role in understanding the development of cardiorenometabolic diseases in nonobese people.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Soo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lim
keywords: Cardiorenometabolic risk; Ectopic fat; Imaging techniques
references.citation: Circ J. 2011;75(5):1019-27
references.pmid: 21441697
references.citation: Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 May;19(5):1028-34
references.pmid: 20948524
references.citation: Int J Obes (Lond). 2009 Feb;33(2):226-32
references.pmid: 19139753
references.citation: Diabetologia. 2005 Feb;48(2):301-8
references.pmid: 15660262
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):952-8
references.pmid: 17921370
references.citation: Circulation. 2008 Feb 5;117(5):605-13
references.pmid: 18212276
references.citation: Hepatology. 2010 Jun;51(6):1979-87
references.pmid: 20336705
references.citation: N Engl J Med. 2004 Feb 12;350(7):664-71
references.pmid: 14960743
references.citation: Obes Res. 2003 Feb;11(2):304-10
references.pmid: 12582228
references.citation: J Hepatol. 2011 Aug;55(2):435-44
references.pmid: 21184785
references.citation: Obesity (Silver Spring). 2007 Apr;15(4):870-8
references.pmid: 17426322
references.citation: Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Apr;71(4):885-92
references.pmid: 10731493
references.citation: Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2005 Dec;25(12):2594-9
references.pmid: 16195477
references.citation: Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2011 Mar;26(3):892-8
references.pmid: 20798120
references.citation: Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Dec;28 Suppl 4:S58-65
references.pmid: 15592488
references.citation: BMC Nephrol. 2011 Oct 04;12:52
references.pmid: 21970591
references.citation: Hypertension. 2010 Nov;56(5):901-6
references.pmid: 20837881
references.citation: Diabetologia. 2008 Nov;51(11):2093-9
references.pmid: 18712517
references.citation: Diabetes. 2005 Dec;54(12):3541-6
references.pmid: 16306373
references.citation: Diabetes Care. 2001 May;24(5):933-41
references.pmid: 11347757
references.citation: Clin Imaging. 2009 Mar-Apr;33(2):110-5
references.pmid: 19237053
references.citation: Clin Biochem. 2009 Sep;42(13-14):1331-46
references.pmid: 19501581
references.citation: Metabolism. 1996 Aug;45(8):947-50
references.pmid: 8769349
references.citation: Lancet. 2005 May 21-27;365(9473):1817-20
references.pmid: 15910955
references.citation: Med Clin North Am. 2009 May;93(3):733-51
references.pmid: 19427502