Description | Abstract Background: Quantifying abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (ASAT) thickness may give new insights into phenotypic variations underlying metabolic diseases including obesity and type 2 diabetes. Methods: We used morphometric methods to study the ASAT in the abdominal UK Biobank MRI data from 44,515 participants who underwent magnetic resonance imaging scans at the first imaging visit and a subcohort of 3,088 underwent a second scan after two years. We quantified the ASAT thickness from three dimensional surface meshes and used statistical parametric maps to assess the regional associations with anthropometric traits and disease conditions, including type-2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension. The principal component scores of the ASAT thickness were also used to evaluate future risk of disease, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). Results: We found that age, alcohol intake and other lifestyle factors, visceral fat, total muscle, and health traits were significantly associated with ASAT thickness. Significant changes in ASAT thickness were observed in both men and women at the second imaging visit after approximately two and a half years; however, the presence of disease at the first visit did not have an additional impact on these changes in either gender. Notably, we identified significant associations between variations in ASAT thickness across the hips compared to abdominal fat and the incidence of CVD in women (hazard ratio (HR): 0.90, 95% CI: 0.84-0.97, p=0.023) as well as hypertension in both genders (HR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03-1.21, p=0.045 in women; HR: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.82-0.96, p=0.014 in men). Conclusions: Analysis of ASAT thickness can enhance the understanding of pathologies associated with chronic conditions. |
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