Anthropometric Assessment of Neck Adipose Tissue and Airway Volume Using Multidetector Computed Tomography

What is it about?

Obesity is of growing concern in the western world. This study used a novel method to create 3D reconstructions of neck fat and airways. This technique was validated to ensure that many different technicians could use the same procedure to achieve the same results. The study then compared the neck fat to airway volume ratio and found that patients with higher neck fat to airway volume ratio had increased mortality.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Viceral fat (or fat that surrounds internal organs) has been strongly linked to many different types of disease processes like cerebrovascular disease. However, subcutaneous fat (or fat that is under the skin) does not share as strong a connection with disease processes. Neck fat has shown to be a good proxy measurement for viceral fat. This study found that increased neck fat correlated strongly with mortality which was most likely due to cerebrovascular disease. In light of this study, neck fat can be used as a tip of the iceberg indicator for cerebrovascular disease.