Intra‐Abdominal Adipose Tissue Values Associated With Risk of Possessing Elevated Blood Lipids and Blood Pressure

Abstract Central fat distribution and more recently intra abdominal adipose tissue (IAF) have been associated with elevated cardiovascular risk factors (CRF). Despite increased interest in use of IAF for screening for CRF, interpretation of risk found in a specific IAF is difficult since regressions for estimating CRF from IAF have not been published. The purpose of this paper is to report IAF values that are likely to be associated with elevated CRF. One hundred forty‐six healthy male subjects 30–71 years were evaluated for IAF and subcutaneous fat (computed tomography scan at 4th lumbar vertebra), height, body weight, % fat, various anthropometric measures, blood cholesterol (CHOL), HDL cholesterol (HDL), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Receiver‐Operating‐Characteristic curves (ROC) were used to develop IAF cutpoints associated with elevation of at least one established CRF criteria (CHOL=200, HDL=<35, SBP=140, DBP=90). A sensitivity/(1‐ specificity) curve estab lished the value of using IAF cutpoints for detecting elevated CRF. Likelihood ratios were used to identify optimal cutpoints. Two cutpoints were identified, 131 cm 2 with a relatively high L pos ratio and 71 cm 2 with a relatively low L neg . False positives associated with 131 cm 2 were 14% for one or more elevated CRF. False negatives associated with 71 cm 2 were 9% for one or more elevated CRF, 4% for two or more CRF, and 0% for three or more elevated CRF. This study clearly indicates that IAF above 131 cm 2 is related to elevated CRF and IAF below 71 cm 2 is associated with reduced cardiovascular risk.