CT-Assessed Visceral Fat and MASLD in Chinese Adults

7,805 Chinese adults underwent abdominal CT scans between September 2020 and June 2023 to assess body composition. The study quantifies visceral fat area (VFA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), skeletal muscle area (SMA), L3 skeletal muscle index (L3SMI), and CT-derived waist circumference (CT-WC) in relation to MASLD risk. It was authored by Linying Xu and analyzes sex-specific, nonlinear associations using logistic regression and spline modeling.

Use Cases

• Analyze the nonlinear association between visceral fat area (VFA) and MASLD risk using restricted cubic spline models.
• Compare the discriminatory power for MASLD between CT-derived body composition models (including VFA and CT-WC) and BMI via ROC analysis.
• Investigate sex-specific risk gradients by modeling odds ratios for MASLD across VFA quartiles separately for men and women.
• Examine the independent association of CT-derived waist circumference (CT-WC) with MASLD after adjusting for other body composition measures.
• Assess the relationship between skeletal muscle measures (SMA, L3SMI) and MASLD prevalence in a fully adjusted logistic regression model.

Strengths

• Dataset includes 7,805 participants, providing a substantial sample for statistical analysis.
• Body composition is quantified using precise CT-derived measures like visceral fat area (VFA) and skeletal muscle area (SMA).
• Analysis covers a defined time range from September 2020 to June 2023.
• Study reports sex-stratified results, with 62.2% men and 37.8% women in the cohort.

Limitations

• Data is cross-sectional, limiting causal inference about the relationship between body composition and MASLD.
• The cohort consists of hospitalized patients and health examination attendees, which may not be representative of the general population.
• Primary data file is a 1.7 MB DOCX document, which is a small-scale summary report rather than a raw tabular dataset.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Linying Xu.

Collection Method

Cross-sectional study using non-contrast abdominal CT scans from hospitalized patients and individuals attending routine health examinations.

Time Range

September 2020 to June 2023.

Freshness

Last updated on March 25, 2026.

Geography

China.