Using magnetic resonance imaging to validate bioelectrical impedance analysis for measuring the area of visceral adipose tissue / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To validate bioelectrical impedance analysis(BIA) for measuring the area of visceral fat of school-age populations using MRI as a reference method.Methods Sixty healthy children (30 boys and 30 girls) aged 7 to 18 years were enrolled in the study.Both MRI and BIA were completed in seven days.We obtained the indexes of the body composition from BIA and MRI in the morning before the participants had their breakfast.For reference,the navel plane image obtained with MRI was used to analyze the area of adipose tissue.With BIA,the area of visceral adipose tissue could be derived directly.Results Sixty healthy school-age children were enrolled in the study.The average age of the school children was (11.9±4.6) years,and their BMI was (22.8±7.3) kg/m2.The average area of visceral fat obtained with BIA was (85.4±64.2) cm2,which was higher than that obtained with MRI [(49.4±32.4) cm2](t=-6.524,P =0.000).The Pearson correlation coefficient was r=0.806 (P=0.000) and the simple linear regression equation for the areabetween the two was:y=0.41x + 14.78;β (95％CI) was 0.41(0.04-0.81).The Bland-Altman plot was (x-) ±1.96 s:(35.9± 83.7) cm2.Conclusion BIA is comparable to MRI for assessing the area of visceral fat and is a reliable and simple tool to evaluate the visceral fat area in school-age children.