Objective: To validate the in-house software that quantify the total abdominal fat volume using multi-detector computed tomography (CT), and define the clinical significance of the capacities of intra-abdominal visceral fat volume (VFV) and subcutaneous fat volume (SFV) to the specific zones, which were scanned by a conventional single-slice CT at the level of umbilicus.

Materials and Methods: Individuals who underwent a 320-slices coronary CT angiogram between January and March 2009 (40 men, 60 women) were recruited. SFV and VFV were measured by semi-automatic method starting at the upmost of the liver down to the lowermost of the pelvis. The capacity inside the muscle walls around abdominal cavity was used to measure intraabdominal VFV. Calculations of subtracting the VFV from the total abdominal fat capacity will equal to the abdominal SFV. In the same way, the intra-abdominal visceral fat areas (VFA) and subcutaneous fat areas (SFA) were computed by the commercial AccuView software at the level of umbilical.

Results: VFV was correlated positively with VFA measured by the single-slice CT at the level of umbilicus in both genders (r=0.903, p<0.001 in men and r=0.786, p<0.001 in women). SFV also showed a positive correlation with SFA in both genders (r=0.835, p<0.001 in men and r=0.726, p<0.001 in women).

Conclusion: A new method in measuring the intra-abdominal fat capacities is achieved semi-automatically through helical CT.

Keywords: Visceral fat volume, Visceral fat area, Computed tomography

Received 19 Feb 2018 | Revised 26 Nov 2018 | Accepted 30 Nov 2018