Clin Osteol 2010; 15(1): 26-29

Potential use of total body densitometry in metabolic syndrome patients - body fat measurementsOriginal contributions

K. Brázdilová, Z. Killinger, J. Payer

Currently, there is an increasing number of overweight or obese patients. Obesity has become the most common lifestyle disease. It re­ presents a serious risk factor for cardiovascular and other diseases, not only in metabolic syndrome but also as a separate disease en­ tity. Physicians have always been concerned about the amount of body fat. In the past, various more or less precise methods were used for body fat measurements. Recently, attention has been paid to densitometry which appears to be most suitable for measuring the amount of fat in the metabolically most important abdominal area. Our study aimed at measuring body fat with a total body densito­ meter and correlating the data with waist circumference and BMI. A group of 35 patients was examined (19 females, 16 males; 20 pa­ tients with metabolic syndrome, 15 patients without metabolic syndrome; age range 29-79 years) The average values were as follows: age 47.75 years, waist circumference 83.9 cm, BMI 24.83 kg/m2 and body fat 32.15%. It was ascertained that in both metabolic syn­ drome patients and control subjects, the amount of body fat was significantly underestimated if BMI was used as compared with body fat measurements with a total body densitometer. Moreover, the amount of body fat measured with the total body densitometer is better correlated with waist circumference than with BMI.

Keywords: obesity, metabolic syndrome, densitometry

Published: June 11, 2010  Show citation