Possibility radiological methods in diagnostics of visceral adiposity

Obesity is present in over 50% of men and 70% of women. Greater health risks development of cardio-vascular disease have been associated with the visceral obesity. Computed tomography is the reference method for intra-abdominal fat evaluation, but high cost, low availability and ionizing radiation risks prevent it from being a widely usable method. Ultrasound measurement of intra-abdominal distance between abdominal muscle and aorta, which has been shown to correlate well with computed tomography intra-abdominal fat measurements, is proposed together with other anthropometric measurements as an alternative means of predicting body fat and also confirmed as a reliable instrument for clinical and epidemiologic studies.