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. 2018 Jan;79(1):449-458.
doi: 10.1002/mrm.26676. Epub 2017 Apr 22.

Whole-body adipose tissue and lean muscle volumes and their distribution across gender and age: MR-derived normative values in a normal-weight Swiss population

Erika J Ulbrich  1 , Daniel Nanz  1 , Olof Dahlqvist Leinhard  2 , Magda Marcon  1 , Michael A Fischer  3
Affiliations
Free article

Whole-body adipose tissue and lean muscle volumes and their distribution across gender and age: MR-derived normative values in a normal-weight Swiss population

Erika J Ulbrich et al. Magn Reson Med. 2018 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

Purpose: To determine age- and gender-dependent whole-body adipose tissue and muscle volumes in healthy Swiss volunteers in Dixon MRI in comparison with anthropometric and bioelectrical impedance (BIA) measurements.

Methods: Fat-water-separated whole-body 3 Tesla MRI of 80 healthy volunteers (ages 20 to 62 years) with a body mass index (BMI) of 17.5 to 26.2 kg/m2 (10 men, 10 women per decade). Age and gender-dependent volumes of total adipose tissue (TAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), total abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (ASAT) and total abdominal adipose tissue (TAAT), and the total lean muscle tissue (TLMT) normalized for body height were determined by semi-automatic segmentation, and correlated with anthropometric and BIA measurements as well as lifestyle parameters.

Results: The TAT, ASAT, VAT, and TLMT indexes (TATi, ASATi, VATi, and TLMTi, respectively) (L/m2 ± standard deviation) for women/men were 6.4 ± 1.8/5.3 ± 1.7, 1.6 ± 0.7/1.2 ± 0.5, 0.4 ± 0.2/0.8 ± 0.5, and 5.6 ± 0.6/7.1 ± 0.7, respectively. The TATi correlated strongly with ASATi (r > 0.93), VATi, BMI and BIA (r > 0.70), and TAATi (r > 0.96), and weak with TLMTi for both genders (r > -0.34). The VAT was the only parameter showing an age dependency (r > 0.32). The BMI and BIA showed strong correlation with all MR-derived adipose tissue volumes. The TAT mass was estimated significantly lower from BIA than from MRI (both genders P < .001; mean bias -5 kg).

Conclusions: The reported gender-specific MRI-based adipose tissue and muscle volumes might serve as normative values. The estimation of adipose tissue volumes was significantly lower from anthropometric and BIA measurements than from MRI. Magn Reson Med 79:449-458, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Keywords: Dixon; age and sex-dependent normative values; fat-water-separated MRI; lean skeletal muscle tissue (LMT); total adipose tissue (TAT); whole-body fat.

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