Institute for Innovation & Sustainable Food Chain Development, Department of Health Sciences, Public University of Navarre.
Navarra Institute for Health Research, IdiSNA.
Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2023 Sep 1;26(5):440-446. doi: 10.1097/MCO.0000000000000960. Epub 2023 Jun 20.
The prevalence of obesity has exponentially increased during the past years. The assessment of human adipose tissue distribution enables the identification of diverse ectopic adipose tissue depots, and helps to explain its relationship with cardiovascular health status. In this review, we summarize the current methods used in the assessment of human adipose tissue distribution, and we discuss the relationship between ectopic adipose tissue distribution and the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and metabolic complications.
The reference instruments to assess human adipose tissue distribution nowadays are the computed tomography and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Today, MRI is the preferred imaging technique and enables the measurement of variations in the distribution of body adipose tissue among different phenotypes and individuals. This technique has helped to better understand the relationship between different ectopic adipose tissue depots and its relationship with cardiometabolic health among individuals.
Although body composition can be assessed by simple techniques, these calculations can provide erroneous results and conclusions, requiring complex interpretations when diverse metabolic situations are concomitantly engaged. Contrarily, medical imaging techniques (e.g. MRI) enables to objectively and unbiasedly measure changes that may occur during longitudinal studies (e.g. pharmacological drug interventions).
在过去的几年中，肥胖的患病率呈指数级增长。人体脂肪组织分布的评估可以识别不同的异位脂肪组织蓄积，并有助于解释其与心血管健康状况的关系。在这篇综述中，我们总结了目前用于评估人体脂肪组织分布的方法，并讨论了异位脂肪组织分布与心血管疾病和代谢并发症风险的关系。
目前评估人体脂肪组织分布的参考仪器是计算机断层扫描和磁共振成像（MRI）。如今，MRI 是首选的成像技术，能够测量不同表型和个体之间体脂肪分布的变化。这项技术有助于更好地理解不同异位脂肪组织蓄积之间的关系及其与个体心血管代谢健康的关系。
虽然身体成分可以通过简单的技术来评估，但这些计算可能会产生错误的结果和结论，需要在同时存在多种代谢情况时进行复杂的解释。相比之下，医学影像学技术（如 MRI）可以客观、无偏地测量在纵向研究中可能发生的变化（如药物干预）。
