ArticlePloS one2023
Computed tomography evaluation of skeletal muscle quality and quantity in people with morbid obesity with and without metabolic abnormality.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between skeletal muscle parameters and metabolic markers in metabolic syndrome: an exploratory cross-sectional study using photon-counting computed tomography.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2026Article
- Characterization of body composition dynamics throughout treatment in patients with early-stage breast cancer.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- CT-based optimization of hindlimb muscle measurement levels and development of a hindlimb muscle condition score in dogs.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Recent development of surface treatment of polytetrafluoroethylene.Analytical sciences : the international journal of the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry · 2025Article
- Asymmetric Degenerative Changes Between Convex and Concave Sides in Symptomatic Adult Degenerative Scoliosis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Why muscle strengthening exercises should target the quadriceps and gluteus maximus in patients with knee osteoarthritis?: Effects of knee pain on muscle volume and fatty degeneration based on AI-assisted cross-sectional analysis.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2025Article
- Assessment of the Risk of Insulin Resistance in Workers Classified as Metabolically Healthy Obese.Nutrients · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We investigated the differences in quantity and quality of skeletal muscle between metabolically healthy obese (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) individuals using abdominal CT. One hundred and seventy-two people with morbid obesity who underwent bariatric surgery and 64 healthy control individuals participated in this retrospective study. We divided the people with morbid obesity into an MHO and MUO group. In addition, nonobese metabolic healthy people were included analysis to provide reference levels. CT evaluation of muscle quantity (at the level of the third lumbar vertebra [L3]) was performed by calculating muscle anatomical cross-sectional area (CSA), which was normalized to patient height to produce skeletal muscle index (SMI). Muscle quality was assessed as skeletal muscle density (SMD), which was calculated from CT muscle attenuation. To characterize intramuscular composition, muscle attenuation was classified into three categories using Hounsfield unit (HU) thresholds: -190 HU to -30 HU for intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT), -29 to +29 HU for low attenuation muscle (LAM), and +30 to +150 HU for normal attenuation muscle (NAM). People with morbid obesity comprised 24 (14%) MHO individuals and 148 (86%) MUO individuals. The mean age of the participants was 39.7 ± 12.5 years, and 154 (65%) participants were women. MUO individuals had a significantly greater total skeletal muscle CSA than MHO individuals in the model that adjusted for all variables. Total skeletal muscle SMI, SMD, NAM index, LAM index, and IMAT index did not differ between MHO and MUO individuals for all adjusted models. Total skeletal muscle at the L3 level was not different in muscle quantity, quality, or intramuscular composition between the MHO and MUO individuals, based on CT evaluation. MHO individuals who are considered "healthy" should be carefully monitored and can have a similar risk of metabolic complications as MUO individuals, at least based on an assessment of skeletal muscle.
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