Ultrasonographic assessment of lipodystrophy in HIV-1-infected patients

Abstract

We consider the ratio between visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue and the thickness of malar fat to be the most useful ultrasonographic parameters for the early diagnosis of lipodystrophy in HIV-infected patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy.

A Comparison of Sonographic Assessments and Clinical Questionnaire in the Diagnosis of HIV-Associated Lipodystrophy

“…Alike other authors that have reported similar correlation between subjective perceptions and sonography in the subcutaneous and visceral body fat compartments, 15,17,18,27 our study estimated a kappa statistic of substantial agreement between the findings obtained by sonographic measurements and clinical LD. Thinner facial fat compartment, upper arm, and subcutaneous abdomen fat as well as thicker visceral adiposity were associated with clinical LD, as well as sex and BMI.…”

“…15 Other studies, using ROC curves to compute the accuracy of the sonography assessment, found specific, separate cutoffs for each one of the body compartments involved in the definition of LD. 14,[16][17][18] These studies also support the use of sonography to assess body fat compartments in HIV-infected persons. Since they did not fit a model to compute ROC curves, we cannot compare the accuracy of these tests with our results.…”

“…Its use has been expanding in different clinical settings, in the context of the permanent need to develop and fully implement practical, cheap, and objective diagnostic procedures for LD. [14][15][16][17][18] The goal of this study was to assess the level of association between sonographic measures of body fat in the facial, abdominal, arm, and visceral compartments, and the outcome of a self-evaluation of LD status in a population of HIVinfected individuals under follow-up in a large outpatient unit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.…”

Sonographically measured perirenal fat thickness: An early predictor of atherosclerosis in HIV‐1‐infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy?

“…22,23 Visceral obesity can be evaluated by different techniques, including CT, [24][25][26] MRI, 27-29 and US. 10,11,[30][31][32][33] However CT and MRI are expensive and employ ionizing radiations, so they are not suitable for large-scale use. US is simple, rapid, available, and safe and is low cost when compared with CT and MRI.…”

“…Diagnoses of visceral obesity were based on sonographic measured PRFD/BMI ratio >0.22. Grima et al 10 observed that this value could be considered a potential parameter to assess a visceral fat accumulation in HIV-1-infected patients.…”