| Description |
Recent neonatal research suggests a causal pathway between premature birth, altered fat deposition, and metabolic disease later in life. Specifically, one study reported that preterm infants display altered adiposity with greater visceral adiposity at term-corrected age than term infants. In adults, increased visceral adiposity is associated with glucose intolerance independent of obesity. Therefore, identification of clinical measures of visceral adiposity may improve identification of at-risk infants. We measured anthropometrics, air displacement plethysmography, and visceral and subcutaneous tissue volumes using magnetic resonance imaging in preterm infants (n=12) born at <34 weeks gestational age at hospital discharge, and in term-born infants (n=12). Our data provide evidence of increased total and visceral adiposity by magnetic resonance imaging in preterm infants. Preterm infants had significantly greater percent body fat by air displacement plethysmography (p < 0.001) with higher total (p < 0.001) and visceral adiposity (p = 0.01) by magnetic resonance imaging at hospital discharge, as compared to term infants. Preterm infant visceral adiposity, when measured by magnetic resonance imaging, was correlated with weight (r = 0.70, p = 0.04), length (r = 0.77, p = 0.02), head circumference (r = 0.75, p = 0.02), mid-arm circumference (r = 0.72, p = 0.03), subscapular skinfold thickness (r = 0.86, p = 0.003), and suprailiac skinfold thickness (r = 0.73, p = 0.03). Overall, the study results indicate that low-cost anthropometric measures correlate with total, visceral, and subcutaneous adipose tissue by magnetic resonance imaging in preterm infants. Furthermore, these data provide preliminary findings to support the development of regression equations to identify preterm infants at risk of metabolic complications later in life. |
