Comparative statistical analysis between two methods for the measurement of visceral fat in humans

As obesity and its associated diseases becomes one of the major health issues in countries such as Mexico and the US, it becomes increasingly important to understand and apply appropriate methods for the measurement of adiposity, particularly, visceral fat. At present, other techniques such as multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) are used to estimate visceral fat in the clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to compare this technique with the gold standard that is measurement of visceral fat by imaging techniques. In this instance we carried out a study comparing BIA with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In order to do this expeditiously for several studies, we developed a semi automatic segmentation method based on the mean shift filtering technique. A Bland-Altman study was carried out to ascertain if this technique was comparable to the gold standard. Results show that both techniques are not comparable and that BIA technique is very susceptible to the influence of subcutaneous fat, and that indeed it is only linear for a narrow range of subjects.