Intraabdominal adipose tissue and anthropometric surrogates in African American women with upper- and lower-body obesity

It is well established that visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in white women. In a recent study, we found that African American women had smaller depots of VAT. To test the relation of VAT to the commonly used anthropometric surrogates for fat patterning, including waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist circumference, subscapular skinfold thickness, and ratio of triceps to subscapular skinfold thickness, we recruited 48 normotensive African American women > 120% of ideal body weight on the basis of WHRs > 0.85 [upper-body obesity (UBO); n = 23] and < 0.76 [lower-body obesity (LBO); n = 25]. There were no differences between groups in age, height, weight, body mass index, or percentage of body fat. VAT was determined by magnetic resonance imaging at L4-5; percentage of fat was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Women with UBO had significantly larger mean (+/- SEM) depots of VAT at L4-5 than did women with LBO (0.26 +/- 0.02 compared with 0.19 +/- 0.02 L). Waist circumference was the single best predictor of VAT at L4-5 in both groups of women whereas WHR was significantly associated with VAT at L4-5 only in women with UBO. In African American women, waist circumference is a better surrogate for VAT than is WHR.