Abdomen Fat and Liver Segmentation of CT Scan Images for Determining Obesity and Fatty Liver Correlation

This research aimed to investigate the relationship and the correlation between abdomen fat accumulation and the level of diffused fat in the human liver using computerized methods. Computed tomography data sets of 125 subjects were employed in this study. This investigation was implemented through three phases. For each subject, the quantity of abdomen fat was measured, and then the liver was segmented and analyzed to evaluate the fat content. Finally, the collected results were utilized to evaluate the correlation. In addition, the liver intensities were measured to evaluate the level of the diffused fat in the liver. Experimental results show that there was a medium negative correlation between the visceral fat to the abdomen size ratio and the mean of the liver intensity values. The same correlation was found between the mean of the liver intensity values and the total abdomen fat to the abdomen size ratio. The ratios mentioned above were used to obtain relative measurements for the size contribution of fat (for each type) to the whole size of the abdominal area, due to the wide variety of sizes of subjects used in this research. This study supports the research community with objective measurements that reveal a direct proportional relationship between obesity and the level of diffused fat in the liver. The findings of this research provide evidence of a detrimental health effect of abdominal obesity (especially visceral fat) on liver fat content, which is associated with an increased risk of serious health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and developing heart problems. The research helps to identify a cause for fat accumulation in the liver, which can help in the process of preventing and treating fatty liver disease.