Stronger associations of sagittal abdominal diameter with atherogenic lipoprotein subfractions than waist circumference in middle-aged US white and Japanese men.
The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) vs. waist circumference (WC) with lipoprotein subfractions for U.S. white and Japanese men, and at the same time to examine the associations of intra-abdominal (visceral) adipose tissue (IAAT) vs. subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) with lipoprotein subfractions. For that purpose, a population-based sample of 260 white and 282 Japanese men aged 40 to 49 years was examined. Analyses revealed that both SAD and WC were significantly and positively associated with total and large VLDL and total and small LDL particle concentrations, and inversely associated with large HDL particle concentration and LDL and HDL sizes for both white and Japanese men. However, after controlling for body mass index (BMI), the associations of SAD remained significant for both white and Japanese men, whereas those of WC became nonsignificant for white men. When SAD and WC were simultaneously included into the BMI-adjusted models, the associations of SAD were not only significant, but also statistically stronger than those of WC for both white and Japanese men. Compared with SAT, IAAT had stronger associations with atherogenic lipoprotein subfractions for both white and Japanese men. Moreover, the pattern of the associations of SAD with lipoprotein subfractions was comparable with that of IAAT. These results suggest that SAD is a better correlate of atherogenic dyslipidemia than WC in middle-aged, nondiabetic, white and Japanese men.