This study sought to determine whether visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and/or its anthropometric surrogates could significantly predict health-related variables (HRV) in overweight Caucasian (CC) (n = 36) and African-American (AA) (n = 30) women. With the use of magnetic resonance imaging, findings showed significantly higher volume and area of VAT (P < 0.0001 for both) as well as higher triacylglycerol (P = 0.009) in CC compared with AA women. Furthermore, VAT volume, race, and VAT volume x race interaction could significantly predict triacylglycerol (P = 0.0094), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = 0.0057), insulin (P = 0.0002), and insulin resistance (P < 0. 0001). Additionally, the VAT volume x race interaction for insulin (P = 0.040) and insulin resistance (P = 0.003) was significant. In a separate analysis, waist circumference and race predicted the identical variables. Our results support the use of volume or area of VAT in predicting HRV in CC women; however, its use in AA women appears limited. In contrast, waist circumference can provide a suitable VAT alternative for both CC and AA women; however, VAT clearly represents the more powerful predictor.

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Pure motor stroke (PMS) manifesting as distal weakness of a single extremity has rarely been described. The authors report a 59-year-old man with PMS who had primarily distal weakness of a single lower extremity, which to the authors' knowledge has not been previously described. Four days after onset, positive diffusion-weighted imaging confirmed that the small subcortical T2-weighted hyper-enhancing and nonenhancing T1-weighted hypo-intensity noted on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) represented an acute PMS that was the cause of the patient's weakness. Increased awareness of this rare clinical presentation of PMS coupled with the promise of imaging the PMS with diffusion-weighted MRI should lead to earlier stroke intervention in these patients.

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