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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cross-sectional (C-S) imaging is now commonly used to measure body composition in clinical studies. This review highlights the advantages, limitations and suggested future directions for this technique. RECENT FINDINGS: Current understanding of C-S imaging reproducibility, tissue identification and segmentation methods, comparison between imaging techniques and estimates of whole body composition using a single image are described. SUMMARY: C-S imaging can reliably measure muscle and fat distribution and uniquely discriminate between intra-abdominal organ and muscle component of fat-free mass. It precisely tracks changes within an individual, but is less able to distinguish true differences in whole body estimates between individuals.
MacDonald et al. (Tue,) studied this question.