Clinical Utility and Reproducibility of Visceral Adipose Tissue Measurements Derived from Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry in White and African American Adults

Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are currently used to measure abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in humans; however, more widely available and less costly dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) also has the potential to measure VAT. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine reproducibility and clinical thresholds for DXA-derived VAT. DESIGN AND METHODS: The sample included 2317 white and African American adults 18–74 years of age. VAT areas (cm(2)) were measured using a Hologic DXA scanner equipped with APEX 4.0 software. Reproducibility was assessed using repeated measurements on 101 participants scanned 14 days apart. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were used to assess clinical utility and select thresholds that identified elevated cardiometabolic risk, defined as the presence of ≥2 risk factors. RESULTS: Reproducibility of DXA-VAT was 8.1%. The areas under the ROC curves ranged from 0.754 in African American men to 0.807 in white women. The thresholds were higher in white men (154 cm(2)) and women (143 cm(2)) compared to African American men (101 cm(2)) and women (114 cm(2)). CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that DXA VAT is a useful clinical marker of cardiometabolic risk; however, further research is required to determine associations with health outcomes using longitudinal studies.