Computed Tomography‐Based Assessment of Abdominal Adiposity Changes and Their Impact on Metabolic Alterations Following Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of surgically induced weight loss on the abdominal adipose tissue depots and the metabolic profile in morbidly obese (MO) patients. METHODS: The study was performed with a semi-automated quantification of adipose tissue compartments on single-slice abdominal CT series before surgery, 6 and 12 months after bariatric surgery. Thirty-eight MO patients with mean age of 35.7 ± 10.1 years and mean body mass index (BMI) of 43.6 ± 6.5 kg/m(2) were studied (20 patients underwent gastric banding and 18 patients underwent sleeve gastrectomy). Anthropometric measurements, metabolic and inflammatory parameters were analyzed in each patient. RESULTS: Markedly decreased levels of total abdominal adipose tissue, abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (AbSAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) at 6 and 12 months were noted in comparison to the preoperative values. The total % reduction of VAT was significant higher in comparison to the total % reduction of AbSAT at 12 months after bariatric surgery (P < 0.01) with the mean ratio of AbSAT/VAT to increase from 4.1 ± 1.7 preoperatively to 6.2 ± 3.1 at 12 months postoperatively (P < 0.001). In addition, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) decreased significantly with weight loss after bariatric surgery and the total abdominal lipid loss was related to the decrease in hsCRP. CONCLUSIONS: Significant changes in abdominal lipid deposition occurred in MO patients 6 and 12 months after bariatric surgery. The changes were significantly, correlated with the magnitude of BMI loss. The fat redistribution may contribute to the improvements in metabolic abnormalities.