About
The aim of the proposed study is to investigate relationships between fat distribution and other factors related to the metabolic syndrome. Most population studies are today using BMI, Waist to Hip ratio or total amount of body fat as measurements and biomarkers for obesity. Imaging methods are now being introduced and can offer improved accuracy and reproducibility for the biomarkers indicating obesity related diseases. A new automatic analysis method is here proposed for the analysis of abdominal MR images acquired within the UK Biobank study, offering a unique possibility to quantify abdominal fat distribution. These measures of fat distribution will be returned to the UK Biobank enabling access to these biomarkers for the research community, thereby supporting obesity-related research in line with the purpose of the UK Biobank. We expect that the proposed work, to quantify and localize fat volume in specific organs of importance, will enable identification of new and more specific biomarkers for chronic diseases where body composition plays an important role. This will have great impact in many of the proposed research projects starting or already started within UK Biobank. After MR scanning, we will analyse the data and quantify abdominal fat and subcutaneous fat in the abdominal region, as well as thigh muscle volume, using automated image analysis. These measures will then be correlated to other factors related to obesity and the metabolic syndrome, such as genetic and demographic data, life style and dietary information, blood analysis data and metabolic information. We intend to analyze the full cohort of the UK Biobank imaging study.
13 Publications
| Pub ID | Title | Author(s) | Year | Journal |
| 3667 | Advanced Body Composition Assessment: From Body Mass Index to Body Composition Profiling | Magnus Borga (+6) | 2018 | Journal of Investigative Medicine |
| 10851 | Adverse muscle composition is a significant risk factor for all-cause mortality in NAFLD | Jennifer Linge (+4) | 2022 | JHEP Reports |
| 3998 | Adverse muscle composition is linked to poor functional performance and metabolic comorbidities in NAFLD | Jennifer Linge (+2) | 2020 | JHEP Reports |
| 11203 | Coronary artery calcium, hepatic steatosis, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: Results from the Dallas heart study | Tasveer Khawaja (+8) | 2023 | Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases |
| 10035 | Effect of tirzepatide on body fat distribution pattern in people with type 2 diabetes | Bertrand Cariou (+7) | 2024 | Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism |
| 10573 | Liver, visceral and subcutaneous fat in men and women of South Asian and white European descent: a systematic review and meta-analysis of new and published data | Stamatina Iliodromiti (+14) | 2022 | Diabetologia |
| 14316 | Plasma Protein Biomarkers of Spirometry Measures of Impaired Lung Function | Mohit Aggarwal (+11) | 2024 | CHEST Journal |
| 13447 | Poor muscle health and cardiometabolic risks associated with antidepressant treatment | Patrik Andersson (+6) | 2024 | Obesity |
| 5621 | Psoriatic arthritis is associated with adverse body composition predictive of greater coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes propensity - a cross-sectional study | Lyn D Ferguson (+9) | 2020 | Rheumatology |
| 9028 | Risk stratification using magnetic resonance imaging-derived, personalized z-scores of visceral adipose tissue, subcutaneous adipose tissue, and liver fat in persons with obesity | Jennifer Linge (+5) | 2024 | Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases |
| 9417 | Skewness in Body fat Distribution Pattern Links to Specific Cardiometabolic Disease Risk Profiles | Jennifer Linge (+5) | 2023 | The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism |
| 8178 | Sub-phenotyping Metabolic Disorders Using Body Composition: An Individualized, Nonparametric Approach Utilizing Large Data Sets | Jennifer Linge (+3) | 2019 | Obesity |
| 15710 | Tirzepatide and muscle composition changes in people with type 2 diabetes (SURPASS-3 MRI): a post-hoc analysis of a randomised, open-label, parallel-group, phase 3 trial | Naveed Sattar (+6) | 2025 | The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology |