Nowak Magdalena, Núñez Luis, Hill Charles E, Pagliaro Tim, McGonigle John, Niglas Marili, Bell-Bradford Camillo, Robson Matthew D, Thomaides Brears Helena, Thomas E Louise, Bell Jimmy D
Perspectum, Oxford, UK.
Research Centre for Optimal Health, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK.
Abdom Radiol (NY). 2025 Sep 8. doi: 10.1007/s00261-025-05170-w.
The escalating global incidence of obesity, cardiometabolic disease and sarcopenia necessitates reliable body composition measurement tools. MRI-based assessment is the gold standard, with utility in both clinical and drug trial settings. This study aims to validate a new automated volumetric MRI method by comparing with manual ground truth, prior volumetric measurements, and against a new method for semi-automated single-slice area measurements.
4905 individuals from the UK Biobank with repeat whole-body Dixon MRI scans were selected. MRI data were processed automatically to derive new (1) volumetric and (2) single-slice area measurements at L3 vertebral level for visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and abdominal skeletal muscle (SM). For comparison, prior volumetric measurements of VAT and SAT were included. A separate set of scans from 100 subjects was randomly selected and body composition volumes and areas were manually segmented as ground truth.
The new automated volumetric measurements were found to have excellent agreement with manual ground truth with no substantial bias (ICC ≥ 0.96, CoV ≤ 3.8%). In the cohort of 4905 individuals (49% male, mean age 62 years ± 8, BMI 26 kg/m ± 4), we confirmed that prior and new volumetric methods of VAT and SAT measurement were very strongly correlated (VAT: ρ = 0.99; SAT: ρ = 1; both p < 0.001). Single-slice L3 area measurements demonstrated very strong correlations with corresponding volumes (for VAT ρ = 0.97, for SAT ρ = 0.94, for SM ρ = 0.95, all p < 0.001), and remained excellent across sex, age, and cardiometabolic characteristics (median ρ = 0.95).
We found robust correlations between manually segmented, automated volumetric, and semi-automated single-slice body composition methods. The interchangeability of these methods suggests that for each application the method should be selected according to practical considerations, operational differences and measurement granularity, rather than technical performance.
肥胖、心脏代谢疾病和肌肉减少症在全球的发病率不断上升，因此需要可靠的身体成分测量工具。基于磁共振成像（MRI）的评估是金标准，在临床和药物试验环境中均有用途。本研究旨在通过与手动真值、先前的容积测量以及一种新的半自动单切片面积测量方法进行比较，验证一种新的自动容积MRI方法。
从英国生物银行中选取4905名进行过重复全身狄克逊MRI扫描的个体。对MRI数据进行自动处理，以得出L3椎体水平的新的（1）容积测量值和（2）单切片面积测量值，用于测量内脏脂肪组织（VAT）、皮下脂肪组织（SAT）和腹部骨骼肌（SM）。为作比较，纳入了先前对VAT和SAT的容积测量值。从100名受试者中随机选取一组单独的扫描数据，并手动分割身体成分的体积和面积作为真值。
发现新的自动容积测量值与手动真值具有极好的一致性，无显著偏差（组内相关系数≥0.96，变异系数≤3.8%）。在4905名个体（49%为男性，平均年龄62岁±8岁，体重指数26kg/m±4）的队列中，我们证实先前和新的VAT及SAT容积测量方法具有非常强的相关性（VAT：ρ=0.99；SAT：ρ=1；两者p<0.001）。L3单切片面积测量值与相应体积具有非常强的相关性（VAT的ρ=0.97，SAT的ρ=0.94，SM的ρ=0.95，均p<0.001），并且在性别、年龄和心脏代谢特征方面均保持极好的相关性（中位数ρ=0.95）。
我们发现手动分割、自动容积和半自动单切片身体成分测量方法之间存在稳健的相关性。这些方法的可互换性表明，对于每种应用，应根据实际考虑因素、操作差异和测量粒度而非技术性能来选择方法。
