Reply: New alternatives in body composition assessment techniques

Abstract

Undoubtedly, ultrasound measurement of fat thickness and A/G ratio could provide a practical solution in places where DXA is unavailable. Still, it possesses several challenges due to diverse corporal compositions, especially in the measure of fat thickness in overweight or obese patients. In addition, those patients tend to have a sizeable abdominal diameter, so visualizing the aorta could be challenging; despite this technical factor, ultrasound often results be accurate and reliable, as should be expected from a suitable measurement technique for abdominal subcutaneous fat. It would be interesting to compare other body composition assessment techniques, such as MRI, which has excellent agreement with DXA without the ionizing radiation or compare it to computed tomography that can accurately determine fat in skeletal muscle tissue and the liver.

Keywords: Body composition assessment; Computed tomography; DXA; Magnetic resonance imaging; Ultrasound.