Purpose: Metabolic syndrome is one of the cardiovascular risk factors including obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertriglyceridemia, decreased HDL cholesterol, and/or hypertension. In this study. we tried to identify the association of intramuscular, visceral and subcutaneous fat with developing metabolic syndrome.
Methods: 9325 subjects who underwent computerized tomography scanning of abdomen were enrolled from 2014 to 2019. Regions of interest were placed on muscles at L3 level, and subcutaneous and visceral fat tissue. And the attenuation in Hounsfield units were averaged in each area. We examined the association between attenuation and metabolic risk factors in univariate and multivariable models and additionally adjusted forbody mass index (BMI) in the separate model.
Results: Among 9325 subjects, 2444 subjects were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. In univariate analysis, BMI, waist circumference, visceral, subcutaneous and intramuscular fat attenuation were significantly related with metabolic syndrome. However, in multivariate analysis, the attenuation in visceral, subcutaneous and intramuscular fat was only related. And, subjects with high intramuscular fat content were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, and had more components of metabolic syndrome. In addition, among normal weight, overweight and obese subjects, high level of intramuscular fat content was most highly related, especially in subjects with normal weight.
Conclusion: The high level of visceral, subcutaneous and intramuscular fat content was associated with developing metabolic syndrome. Particularly, the higher intramuscular fat level was most highly related with metabolic syndrome. Therefore, to manage the metabolic syndrome, more attention is needed to control intramuscular fat. |
