title: Abdominal fat volume estimation by stereology on CT: a comparison with manual planimetry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To deploy and evaluate a stereological point-counting technique on abdominal CT for the estimation of visceral (VAF) and subcutaneous abdominal fat (SAF) volumes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Stereological volume estimations based on point counting and systematic sampling were performed on images from 14 consecutive patients who had undergone abdominal CT. For the optimization of the method, five sampling intensities in combination with 100 and 200 points were tested. The optimum stereological measurements were compared with VAF and SAF volumes derived by the standard technique of manual planimetry on the same scans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Optimization analysis showed that the selection of 200 points along with the sampling intensity 1/8 provided efficient volume estimations in less than 4 min for VAF and SAF together. The optimized stereology showed strong correlation with planimetry (VAF: r = 0.98; SAF: r = 0.98). No statistical differences were found between the two methods (VAF: P = 0.81; SAF: P = 0.83). The 95% limits of agreement were also acceptable (VAF: -16.5%, 16.1%; SAF: -10.8%, 10.7%) and the repeatability of stereology was good (VAF: CV = 4.5%, SAF: CV = 3.2%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Stereology may be successfully applied to CT images for the efficient estimation of abdominal fat volume and may constitute a good alternative to the conventional planimetric technique.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Abdominal obesity is associated with increased risk of disease and mortality. Stereology may quantify visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat accurately and consistently. The application of stereology to estimating abdominal volume fat reduces processing time. Stereology is an efficient alternative method for estimating abdominal fat volume.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Manios
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mazonakis
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Voulgaris
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karantanas
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. damilaki@med.uoc.gr.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Damilakis
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D050153:Abdominal Fat / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Abdominal fat; CT; Fat volume measurement; Planimetry; Stereology