Assessment of subcutaneous fat thickness by A-mode ultrasonic method / 体力科学

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study is to observe the accuracy of the ultrasonic A-mode method for measuring subcutaneous fat thickness. Nine healthy adults (4 males and 5 females) volunteered as experimental subjects. The skin and subcutaneous fat thickness at four different positions, the anterior, posterior, medialis and lateralis of the forearm, upper arm, leg and thigh, were measured by means of an A-mode ultrasonic subcutaneous fat caliper (CANON, CH 300-FT) and also by a B-mode method (ALOKA, SSD-120, ECHOVISION, Circular compound scanner) . Correlation coefficients of subcutaneous fat thickness between both ultrasonic methods were 0.808 for the forearm, 0.780 for the upper arm, 0.833 for the leg and 0.843 for the thigh with a statistical significance of 0.1 % level, respectively.<BR>Differences of the thickness of subcutaneous fat between both methods were from 0.6 to 2.0mm as every absolute mean values. No significant differences were observed for mean subcutaneous fat thickness between both methods at each position. From these results, the A-mode ultrasonic method (CANON, CH 300-FT) is considered to be useful for measuring the thickness of skin and subcutaneous fat in human limbs.