On the relationship between CT measured abdominal fat parameters and three metabolic risk biomarkers

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and there is a need for the development of adjacent markers to assess cardiovascular risk. In this study, we examined the relationship between the areas of abdominal fat compartments, as measured by computed tomography (CT)-based planar measurements, and laboratory-validated cardiovascular risk markers. Methods: Fat distribution was measured on CT scans in 252 patients (M: F = 1.13) who underwent routine abdominal CT, using in-house and commercially available software. The included laboratory parameters were glucose, triglycerides, and the triglycerideglucose index. Results: The visceral abdominal fat (VAF) area and VAF percentage were lower in females compared to the VAF area and VAF percentage in males, (p=0.001, and p Conclusions: Areas of abdominal fat compartments correlate with metabolic parameters in the blood, and in the future, their assessment might be considered when constructing risk scores. Visceral fat content assessment for every abdominal computed tomography procedure might become a surrogate marker for cardio-vascular risk estimation after defining clear cut-off values and image analysis parameters.