Which anthropometric measurements including visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, body mass index, and waist circumference could predict the urinary stone composition most?

Background: Although there is growing evidence of relationship between obesity and some specific stone compositions, results were inconsistent. Due to a greater relationship between metabolic syndrome and some specific stone type, obesity measured by body mass index (BMI) has limitation in determining relationship between obesity and stone compositions. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship among BMI, visceral fat, and stone compositions. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data of patients with urinary stone removed over a 5 year period (2011-2014). Data on patient age, gender, BMI, urinary pH, stone composition, fat volumes (including visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, total fat, waist circumference), and ratio for visceral to total fat using computed tomography based delineation were collected. To figure out the predicting factor while adjusting other confounding factors, discriminant analysis was used. Results: Among 262 cases, average age was 52.21 years. Average BMI and visceral fat were 25.03 cm(2) and 124.75 cm(2), respectively. By chi square test, there was significant (p < 0.001) difference in stone types according to sex. By ANOVA test, BMI, visceral fat, visceral to subcutaneous fat ratio, the percentage of visceral fat and total fat showed significant association with stone types. By discriminant analysis, visceral fat was proved to be a powerful factor to predict stone composition (structure matrix of visceral fat = -0.735) with 42.0% of predictive value. Conclusion: Visceral fat adiposity strongly related with uric acid stone and has better predictive value than BMI or urinary pH to classify the types of stone.