[Diagnostic method for visceral fat obesity].

We and others have shown that accumulation of intra-abdominal visceral fat is associated with various complications of obesity. At present, CT is an optimal technique for the accurate assessment of visceral fat. Visceral fat areas from single scan obtained at the level of the umbilicus are highly correlated with the total visceral fat volume. We developed a practical and standardized method for measuring visceral fat area with CT to determine fat areas on the basis of a flexible attenuation range. Recently, we also developed the software of this method installed in a personal computer. Furthermore, now we are developing a new conventional method for presuming visceral fat volume using abdominal bioelectrical impedance method.