Preoperative Assessment of Abdominal Adipose Tissue to Predict Microvascular Invasion in Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Microvascular invasion (MVI) affects recurrence after treatment of small hepatocellular carcinoma (sHCC) of ≤3 cm in size. The present study aimed to investigate whether abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) are associated with MVI in patients with sHCC. METHODS: A total of 124 patients with pathologically-confirmed sHCC diagnosed on surgical resection at the First Hospital Affiliated to Army Military University were recruited and divided into two groups according to MVI classification criteria (i.e., MVI-positive or MVI-negative). The SAT, VAT, and IMAT areas at the lumbar 3 vertebral level were imaged with abdominal computed tomography and measured using ImageJ software. Their association with MVI in sHCC was analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 124 patients with sHCC, 67 were MVI-positive and 57 were MVI-negative. Univariate analysis revealed a significant difference in the abdominal VAT and SAT between the MVI-positive and MVI-negative groups (p<0.05), with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.76 and 0.65, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the areas of abdominal SAT and VAT are of significant clinical value because they can effectively predict the MVI status in patients with sHCC.