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Showing papers by "William Desmond Evans published in 2009"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A small preliminary study shows that abdominal BIA is potentially a practicable non-invasive technique for measurement of VFA but casts doubt on whether it adds any value to the use of WC alone, and suggests larger studies are now required to test this finding.
Abstract: Ryo et al (2005 Diabetes Care 28 451–3) reported a new method for measuring the visceral fat area (VFA) by combining abdominal bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) with measurement of waist circumference (WC), but very few methodological details were provided. Furthermore, the study did not test the use of WC alone as an indicator of VFA even though others had previously reported a strong correlation. We sought to determine the optimal measurement technique and analysis for measuring VFA by abdominal BIA and WC. 18 volunteers (age 23–64 years) underwent measurement of WC, abdominal impedance (Bodystat 500 four-electrode system) and a single cross-sectional CT scan at the umbilicus. VFA derived using WC3 and measurements of abdominal impedance from electrode pairs sited at the flank predicted the value of VFA measured by CT with correlation r = 0.904 (p < 0.0001); the optimizing power of WC was 3.3 (r = 0.905). However, the use of WC1.9 alone, without involving BIA at all, provided a similar correlation (r = 0.923). Our small preliminary study shows that abdominal BIA is potentially a practicable non-invasive technique for measurement of VFA but casts doubt on whether it adds any value to the use of WC alone. Larger studies are now required to test this finding.

21 citations