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Association of new obesity indices; visceral adiposity index and body adiposity index, with metabolic syndrome parameters in obese patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus

The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine volume 31, pages 620–628 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Obesity is the cornerstone of metabolic syndrome (MetS); it is not possible to use BMI to differentiate between lean mass and fat mass. We aimed to investigate, for the first time, the possible association of new obesity indices; visceral adiposity index (VAI) and body adiposity index (BAI), with parameters of MetS in Egyptian obese patients.

Patients and methods

This was a case–control study that included unrelated 150 obese patients and 50 healthy controls. Obese patients were then subdivided into two subgroups, nondiabetic patients (n=85) and 65 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. We measured the anthropometric measures; BMI, waist/hip ratio, waist/height ratio, BAI, and VAI.

Results

Among obese patients, we found significant positive correlations between parameters of MetS and obesity indices. Among obesity indiced, the highly significant positive correlations were found between VAI and parameters of MetS. After adjusting for the traditional risk factors, logistic regression analysis test found that the VAI value was the best predictor of type 2 diabetes mellitus in comparison with BMI and BAI. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to assess the power of obesity indices; the sensitivity and the specificity of BMI were 94.7 and 99.9%, for VAI, they were 74.4 and 99.9%, and, for BAI, they were 83.3 and 58%, respectively.

Conclusion

BMI is still the most powerful diagnostic tool for obesity. Although, in certain conditions, where there are limitations of using BMI, we can use other obesity indices, VAI and BAI could be used to discriminate cardiovascular risk among obese patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, 44519, Egypt

    Nearmeen M. Rashad & George Emad

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  1. Nearmeen M. Rashad
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  2. George Emad
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Correspondence to Nearmeen M. Rashad.

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Rashad, N.M., Emad, G. Association of new obesity indices; visceral adiposity index and body adiposity index, with metabolic syndrome parameters in obese patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus. Egypt J Intern Med 31, 620–628 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4103/ejim.ejim_4_19

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Keywords

  • body adiposity index
  • BMI
  • metabolic syndrome
  • obesity
  • visceral adiposity index