Sagittal Abdominal Diameter as the Anthropometric Measure of Cardiovascular Risk

Obesity has a profound impact on the cardiovascular disease development, and is associated with a reduced overall survival. There is a strong correlation between the central (abdominal) type of obesity and the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Among a variety of anthropometric measurements of the abdominal fat size, sagittal abdominal diameter has been proposed as the valid measurement of the visceral fat mass and cardiometabolic risk level. Many studies have analyzed the relationship between sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), visceral fat area, and different markers of cardiometabolic disturbances with respect to age, gender and ethnicity. Some of them have offered the cut-off values that could be useful in clinical practice, in identifying individuals who are at higher risk of comorbidities of the obesity. Using the principles of rough set theory, based on producing If-Then rules, we have developed a model that allows better applicability of SAD in identifying patients at higher cardiovascular risk. In this chapter, we describe the basic principles of the proposed model. Furthermore, we give a broad overview of the main concerns regarding the significance of SAD and its use in diagnosing the abdominal obesity and predicting the adverse cardiometabolic outcomes.