Other imaging techniques to quantify internal-abdominal adiposity (IA-AT) and subcutaneous-abdominal adiposity (SCA-AT) are frequently impractical in infants. The aim of this study was twofold: (a) to validate ultrasound (US) visceral and subcutaneous-abdominal depths in assessing IA-AT and SCA-AT from MRI as the reference method in infants and (b) to analyze the association between US abdominal adiposity and anthropometric measures at ages 3 months and 12 months. Twenty-two infants underwent MRI and US measures of abdominal adiposity. Abdominal US parameters and anthropometric variables were assessed in the Cambridge Baby Growth Study (CBGS), infants (23 girls) at age 3 months and infants (237 girls) at 12 months. US visceral and subcutaneous-abdominal depths correlated with MRI quantified IA-AT ( , ) and SCA-AT ( , ) volumes, respectively. In CBGS, mean US-visceral depths increased by 20 % between ages 3 and 12 months ( ) and at both ages were lower in infants breast-fed at 3 months than in other infants. US-visceral depths at both 3 and 12 months were inversely related to skinfold thickness at birth ( and at 3 and 12 months, resp.; adjusted for current skinfold thickness). In contrast, US-subcutaneous-abdominal depth at 3 months was positively related to skinfold thickness at birth ( ). US measures can rank infants with higher or lower IA-AT and SCA-AT. Contrasting patterns of association with visceral and subcutaneous-abdominal adiposities indicate that they may be differentially regulated in infancy. 1. Introduction Childhood obesity has become a major public health issue and its prevalence is increasing worldwide [1–3]. More important than BMI, or overall adiposity, greater abdominal distribution of adiposity is associated with insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, and hypertension [4–6]. In obese children, greater internal-abdominal adiposity (IA-AT), also known as visceral fat, is associated with less favourable metabolic profiles [7, 8]. In addition, subcutaneous-abdominal adipose tissue (SCA-AT) is also associated with insulin resistance and metabolic disorders in some studies [9, 10]. Several epidemiological studies have reported that early life factors, such as impaired fetal growth or excess postnatal weight gain, are associated with later obesity and related comorbidities [11–15]. Growth in fetal life as well as in infancy has been associated with subsequent abdominal adipose tissue accumulation [11, 16]. However, those studies used indirect measures of abdominal adiposity, such as skinfold thickness and waist-hip ratio, and
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