The clinical utility of anthropometric measures to assess adiposity in a cohort of prematurely born infants: Correlations with MRI fat quantification.

OBJECTIVE

To correlate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of body fat in preterm infants at the time of hospital discharge with same-day anthropometric measures, and to assess the clinical utility of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and WC/length ratio as indicators of visceral fat.

STUDY DESIGN

MRI performed prior to NICU discharge in 25 infants born preterm at <32 weeks gestation. Total body fat and visceral fat were quantified using a commercial software program. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r, 95% C.I.) was used to describe strength of association between MRI fat and anthropometric measures.

RESULTS

BMI and weight at discharge were strongly correlated with total body fat (r = 0.95 and 0.89 respectively; p < 0.001). Total body fat as a % of body weight was moderately correlated with weight (r = 0.53), WC (r = 0.52), and BMI (r = 0.47). Weight, BMI, and ponderal index all were found to correlate with total visceral fat (r = 0.65, 0.64, 0.55 respectively) but WC did not (r = 0.28). WC/length ratio was not correlated with any MRI fat measurements.

CONCLUSIONS

BMI and weight at discharge both correlate with MRI fat measurements. Our findings do not support the usefulness of measuring WC or WC/length ratio in preterm infants at term-equivalent age.