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Japanese men have larger areas of visceral adipose tissue than Caucasian men in the same levels of waist circumference in a population-based study

International Journal of Obesity volume 30, pages 1163–1165 (2006)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 09 October 2012

Abstract

Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is an independent risk factor for metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. There has been no study that demonstrated different abdominal fat distribution between Asian and Caucasian men. As the Japanese are less obese but more susceptible to metabolic disorders than Caucasians, they may have larger VAT than Caucasians at similar levels of obesity. We compared the abdominal fat distribution of the Japanese (n=239) and Caucasian-American (n=177) men aged 40–49 years in groups stratified by waist circumference in a population-based sample. We obtained computed tomography images and determined areas of VAT and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). We calculated VAT to SAT ratio (VSR). The Japanese men had a larger VAT and VSR in each stratum, despite substantially less obesity overall. In multiethnic studies, difference in abdominal fat distribution should be considered in exploring factors related to obesity.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Grant-in-aid for young scientists ((B):16790335) and Grant-in-aid ((A):13307016) by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and National Institute of Health (1R01 HL68200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan

    T Kadowaki, T Okamura, Y Kita & H Ueshima

  2. Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    T Kadowaki, A Sekikawa, T Takamiya, A El-Saed, K Sutton-Tyrrell & L H Kuller

  3. Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan

    K Murata

  4. Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan

    H Maegawa

  5. Department of Clinical Nursing, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan

    N Miyamatsu

  6. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PA, USA

    D Edmundowicz

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  1. T Kadowaki
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  2. A Sekikawa
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  3. K Murata
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  4. H Maegawa
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  5. T Takamiya
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  7. A El-Saed
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  8. N Miyamatsu
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  9. D Edmundowicz
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  10. Y Kita
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  11. K Sutton-Tyrrell
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  12. L H Kuller
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  13. H Ueshima
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Correspondence to T Kadowaki.

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Kadowaki, T., Sekikawa, A., Murata, K. et al. Japanese men have larger areas of visceral adipose tissue than Caucasian men in the same levels of waist circumference in a population-based study. Int J Obes 30, 1163–1165 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803248

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803248

Keywords

  • abdominal adipose tissue
  • visceral adipose tissue
  • Japanese
  • Caucasian

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