Strong Association of Sagittal Abdominal Diameter with Traditional Variables for Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Abstract

Recent research suggests that abdominal height, measured as sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) in either supine or standing position, reflects visceral fat and is associated with cardiovascular (c-v) disease risk. Thus, adding SAD to other common indexes of adiposity (e.g. BMI, waist and hip girth, body fat %) may provide a better prediction of disease risk. The purpose of this study was to determine: 1) the feasibility of using SAD as a measure of abdominal obesity in young and older adults, and 2) the degree of association between SAD and other anthropometric and traditional c-v risk variables.