The objective of this study was to compare sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) to other anthropometric measures in predicting intra-abdominal (visceral) obesity measured by computed tomography. The study population consisted of 5,257 apparently healthy men and women who were enrolled in a health checkup program in Korea. Results showed that SAD reflected intra-abdominal adipose tissue most accurately in all subjects and both sex groups. This study also confirmed that older men and women had significantly more intra-abdominal adipose tissue than the younger group, but SAD was superior to other measures in predicting intra-abdominal in both the younger and the older groups in men and women. SAD also showed a consistently stronger correlation with intra-abdominal adipose tissue compared with other measures in both the normal/overweight and obese groups. Waist circumference, on the other hand, showed a stronger correlation with subcutaneous adipose tissue than with intra-abdominal adipose tissue in both sexes. Moreover, transverse abdominal diameter was the best predictor of subcutaneous adipose tissue in women compared to all other measures. Thus, these results support the clinical use of SAD to predict intra-abdominal adipose tissue in men and women.
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