Sagittal Abdominal Diameter: Application in Clinical Practice

• Main Authors: Thaís Da Silva-Ferreira, Gabriela De Azevedo-Abreu, Marcelly Cunha-Oliveira-Dos-Santos-Lopes, Vanessa Chaia-Kaippert, Eliane Lopes-Rosado
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academia Española de Nutrición y Dietética 2014-05-01
• Series: Revista Española de Nutrición Humana y Dietética
• Subjects: Grasa abdominal; Diámetro abdominal sagital; Antropometría
• Online Access: http://renhyd.org/index.php/renhyd/article/view/60
• ISSN: 2173-1292; 2174-5145

Excess visceral fat is associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) has recently been highlighted as an indicator of abdominal obesity, and also may be useful in predicting cardiovascular risk. The purpose of the present study was to review the scientific literature on the use of SAD in adult nutritional assessment. A search was conducted for scientific articles in the following electronic databases: SciELO , MEDLINE (PubMed) and Virtual Health Library. SAD is more associated with abdominal fat (especially visceral), and with different cardiovascular risk factors, such as, insulin resistance, blood pressure, and serum lipoproteins than the traditional methods of estimating adiposity, such as body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio. SAD can also be used in association with other anthropometric measures. There are still no cut-off limits established to classify SAD as yet. SAD can be an alternative measure to estimate visceral adiposity. However, the few studies on this diameter, and the lack of consensus on the anatomical site to measure SAD, are obstacles to establish cut-off limits to classify it.