Abstract
Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents have become a global health problem with a steadily increasing prevalence. The accumulation of intra-abdominal adipose tissue increases the risk of developing insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Body composition plays a role in regulating metabolism in children and adolescents, with differences between genders and age groups. Until recently, air displacement plethysmography and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were the most common techniques for assessing body composition in children.
The new development in body composition assessment in children is advanced imaging, which ideally uses widely available and radiation-free techniques. Ultrasound (US) is an accurate, readily available, and radiation-free technique for quantifying intra-abdominal adipose tissue in adults, but its use in children has not yet been validated.
Computed tomography (CT) is a reliable tool for assessing body composition, but its use in children should be avoided because of the significant radiation exposure. Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) provides an accurate measure of body composition by quantifying visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and brown adipose tissue (BAT), as well as fat-free mass. Reference values for body composition assessment have been widely reported in adult population. There is little evidence for reference values in children. This chapter presents the most important measurements and validated reference values for the assessment of body composition in children and adolescents.
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Simoni, P. (2023). Body Composition. In: Simoni, P., Aparisi Gómez, M.P. (eds) Essential Measurements in Pediatric Musculoskeletal Imaging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17735-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17735-4_11
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