Reproducibility of Regional DEXA Examinations of Abdominal Fat and Lean Tissue

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and test the validity of a new repeatable method to delimit abdominal areas for follow-up of fat mass (FM) and lean tissue mass (LM) in DEXA examinations . Methods: 37 male volunteers underwent two DEXA examinations. Total body FM and LM measurements and corresponding abdominal measurements in a carefully defined region were calculated from the first scan. After repositioning of the subjects and a second scan, the delimited region was copied and the abdominal tissues re-calculated. Results: The mean LM of the abdominal area was 2.804 kg (SD 0.556), and the mean FM was 1.026 kg (SD 0.537). The intra-class correlation coefficient for the repeated abdominal LM, FM, and LM/FM ratio measurements was 0.99. The mean difference (bias) for the repeated abdominal LM measurements was –13 g (95% confidence interval (CI) –193.0 to 166.8), and for the repeated abdominal FM measurements it was –35 g (95% CI –178.9 to 108.5). Conclusions: The results indicate that regional DEXA is a sensitive method with excellent reproducibility in the measurements of the abdominal fat and lean tissues. The method may serve as a useful tool for evaluation and follow-up of various dietary and training programmes.