A simple measurement method of visceral fat accumulation by bioelectrical impedance analysis

Simple measurement of visceral fat accumulation is essential for diagnosis and treatment of metabolic syndrome. Bioelectrical impedance method is most suitable for theses measurements. However, measuring visceral fat volume without the influence of subcutaneous fat has been difficult because of the low spatial resolution of bioelectrical impedance method. In the present study, we have developed a simple method for the measurement of visceral fat accumulation using visceral fat bioelectrical impedance analysis (VF-BIA). For VF-BIA, an electric current (250 mu A, 50 kHz) was applied to electrodes bilaterally fixed on the hands and feet, and the voltage was measured between six pairs of electrodes placed around the trunk at the umbilical level. The impedance reflects the total amount of abdomen fat, in addition to obtain the impedance of the body surface which reflects the amount of subcutaneous fat, the voltage induced by applying electric current to the electrodes placed on the body surface around the trunk at the umbilical level was measured with electrodes between the stimulating electrodes. Regarding to measure these two impedance values we adopted the four electrodes method. The visceral fat area (VFA) was calculated using these two impedance values. Measurement results by this method correlated well with visceral fat area obtained from MRI image: r=0.820 and p<0.001. Our method is suggested to be useful for simple visceral fat measurement.