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Metabolism and Metabolomics

How reliably can ultrasound help determine muscle and adipose tissue thickness in clinical settings? An assessment of intra- and inter-examiner reliability in the USVALID study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 76, pages 401–409 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives

Ultrasound is used to measure muscle and adipose tissue thickness at the bedside. This study was aimed at determining the intra- and inter-examiner reliability for marking points to measure adipose tissue and muscle thickness and assessing it in terms of the performance and evaluation of the corresponding ultrasound scans.

Subjects/Methods

Intra- and inter-examiner reliability was tested in 120 patients. Limb lengths were measured to mark three and two measuring points on both the thighs and upper arms, respectively. Ultrasound scans were performed at each measuring point to evaluate muscle and adipose tissue thickness.

Results

Regarding the marking of the measuring points, intra- and inter-examiner reliability were high to very high, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.96. In the performance and evaluation of adipose tissue thickness, all measuring points showed a high to very high reliability, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.70 to 0.97. In the performance and evaluation of muscle thickness, the ventral measuring point on the thigh and the anterior measuring point on the upper arm showed the best reliability, with high to very high correlation coefficients ranging from 0.77 to 0.93.

Conclusions

In terms of intra- and inter-examiner reliability, the ventral measuring point on the thigh and the anterior measuring point on the upper arm can be strongly recommended for ultrasound measurements of muscle and adipose tissue thickness.

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Fig. 1: Marking of measuring points.
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Acknowledgements

We thank all the staff members of the departments of the USVALID Collaboration Group for welcoming our research team to recruit the patients. The representative members of the USVALID Collaboration Group are listed in the Supplementary Information. We thank all the patients who participated in the USVALID study. We thank our friends, listed in the Supplementary Information, who volunteered as healthy individuals during the training phase prior to the trial. The manuscript was edited by a scientific English editing service.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Arabella Fischer, Ricarda Hahn, Martin Anwar, Anatol Hertwig, Maximilian Pesta, Isabel Timmermann, Timo Siebenrock, Konstantin Liebau & Michael Hiesmayr

  2. Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Jonas Brugger, Martin Posch, Isabella Sulz & Michael Hiesmayr

Authors
  1. Arabella Fischer
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  2. Ricarda Hahn
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  3. Martin Anwar
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  4. Anatol Hertwig
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  5. Maximilian Pesta
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  6. Isabel Timmermann
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  7. Timo Siebenrock
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  8. Konstantin Liebau
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  10. Martin Posch
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  11. Isabella Sulz
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  12. Michael Hiesmayr
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Contributions

AF contributed to the conception, design, patient recruitment, data collection, data analysis and writing. RH, AH, MA, MP, IT, TS, and KL contributed to patient recruitment and data collection. JB and IS contributed to data analysis. MP contributed to conception and data analysis. MH contributed to conception, design, supervision, and writing. All authors contributed to reviewing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arabella Fischer.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Fischer, A., Hahn, R., Anwar, M. et al. How reliably can ultrasound help determine muscle and adipose tissue thickness in clinical settings? An assessment of intra- and inter-examiner reliability in the USVALID study. Eur J Clin Nutr 76, 401–409 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-00955-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-00955-w

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