BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested links between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, and abdominal obesity. Although abdominal visceral fat is thought to be associated with cardiovascular risk factors, the degree of visceral fat accumulation in patients with COPD has not been directly studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the abdominal visce...

Chemerin is a recently identified adipokine suggested to play a role in obesity and its metabolic complications. The relationship between visceral obesity and serum chemerin levels in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is unknown and may differ from that of subjects without diabetes. Therefore, we evaluated whether serum chemerin was associated with visceral abdominal obesity in patients with T2DM. A total...

Despite the importance of randomized, dose-response studies for proper evaluation of effective clinical interventions, there have been no dose-response studies on the effects of exercise amount on abdominal obesity, a major risk factor for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. One hundred seventy-five sedentary, overweight men and women with mild to moderate dyslipidemia wer...

OBJECTIVE Excess visceral fat accumulation is associated with the metabolic disturbances of obesity. Differential lipid redistribution through lipoproteins may affect body fat distribution. This is the first study to investigate VLDL-triglyceride (VLDL-TG) storage in visceral fat. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Nine upper-body obese (UBO; waist circumference >88 cm) and six lean (waist circumfer...

OBJECTIVE Hepatic steatosis may occur in association with insulin resistance and obesity, two features commonly seen in Cushing's syndrome (CS). The aim of this report is to assess the prevalence of hepatic steatosis in patients with active CS using computed tomography (CT) and to identify any associations between hepatic steatosis, endocrine and biochemical variables and body fat distribution....

BACKGROUND A few studies have investigated the role of adiponectin fraction for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in RTx recipients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We studied 57 adult subjects (39 males, 18 females; 10 cadaveric donors) with at least three years of allograft survival (median 251 months). We examined clinical backgrounds such as treated drugs, blood pressure (BP, mmHg), body mass index (BMI)...

Visceral fat is considered a key factor in the development of metabolic syndrome and other pathological conditions and diseases associated with obesity. Therefore, analysis of the dynamics of reducing the amount of abdominal visceral fat is important for evaluating the therapeutic effects of different modalities of obesity treatment, including bariatric surgery. In 53 obese patients visceral an...

BACKGROUND Overall obesity and, as it is increasingly appreciated, body fat distribution and ectopic fat deposition in liver and skeletal muscle, determine insulin resistance in humans. However, little is known about the independence of these relationships. Therefore, we determined the impact of different fat depots as well as fat accumulation in ectopic tissues such as liver and skeletal muscl...

BACKGROUND Pericardial fat has been implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity-related cardiovascular disease. Whether the associations of pericardial fat and measures of cardiac structure and function are independent of the systemic effects of obesity and visceral adiposity has not been fully explored. METHODS AND RESULTS Participants from the Framingham Heart Study (n=997; 54.4% women) under...

The metabolic syndrome has received worldwide recognition and is useful clinical aid in early-preventing atherosclerosis. Visceral adiposity is the main component of the metabolic syndrome in Japan, based on ethnic and racial difference in the pattern of adiposity. In the Amagasaki Visceral Fat Study, subjects had undergone annual health check-ups and then received health education by medical p...