Adipose Tissue Distribution and Metabolic Profile of Young Individuals with Turner Syndrome

Abstract Objective Turner syndrome (TS) is the most common sex chromosome abnormality in females. Incidence of cardiometabolic complications is high in TS. Obesity and high visceral adiposity (VA) are additional risk factors. Body mass index (BMI) is not the best index of adiposity in TS due to short stature. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan female). In TS group, correlation is noted between DXA & BI for fat mass (FM), lean mass (LM) & VA. VA (356.56 +/-225.82g) & FM (27.06 +/-11.39g) from DXA were higher for TS group compared to lean group’s VA (162.66 +/- 68.58g) & FM (19.44 +/-19.47g) even with comparable lean mass and total weight. Prevalence of dyslipidemia was 38% in TS group. Lean group had no dyslipidemia. Conclusion Differences in LM, FM & VA would not have been identified by BMI alone. BI may be a convenient & non-invasive outpatient tool in TS to assess body composition & identify risk factors for metabolic dysfunction such as low LM & high FM.