Table 9.
Summary of terms, abbreviations, and units that have been used to report CT-based measurements of bone marrow adiposity.
| Imaging method | Measurement type | Year first reported* | No. of papers* | Recommended term(s) | Recommended abbreviation and unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SECT, DECT or μCT(Without contrast agent) | Fat fraction (% or fraction) | 1987 | 8 | Fat fraction; Bone marrow fat fraction | FF (%), BMFF (%) |
| Adipose volume (per marrow volume) | 2019 | 2 | Adipose volume | Ad.V/Ma.V (%) | |
| BM density | 1986 | 6 | Don't use (Report as Adipose volume, FF or BMFF, as above) | ||
| Adipose volume (per tissue volume) | 2011 | 2 | Don't use (Report as % Ma.V, as above) | ||
| μCT (Samples stained with osmium tetroxide or other contrast agents) | Adipose volume (per marrow volume) | 2012 | 11 | Adipose volume | Ad.V/Ma.V (%) |
| Adipocyte density (per marrow volume) | 2014 | 2 | Adipocyte density or Adipocyte number | N.Ad/Ma.V (Cell number/unit volume) | |
| Adipocyte area (Distribution of individual adipocyte areas) | 2015 | 1 |
Adipocyte area (mean or median) |
Ad.Ar, μm2 (Show frequency distribution)m | |
| Total adipocyte area (per Slice) | na | na | Adipose area | Ad.Ar/Ma.Ar (%) | |
| Adipocyte volume (per slice) | na | na | Adipocyte volume (mean or median) | Ad.V, μm3 (show frequency distribution) | |
| Adipose volume (per tissue or total volume) | 2014 | 12 | Don't use (Report as % Ma.V, as above) | ||
| Adipose volume (Unclear if per tissue volume or per marrow volume) | 2015 | 4 | |||
| Adipose volume (absolute) | 2015 | 10 | |||
Data are presented as described for Table 7, except that imaging method is also indicated. For the Year first reported and the Number of papers, asterisks (*) are shown to emphasise that other uses may exist. For each type of measurement, several different terms, abbreviations, and units have been used in the literature; these variants are presented in Supplementary Table 8. Most in vivo studies using SECT or DECT report measurements of fat fraction or relative adipose volume, and therefore we recommend reporting these as indicated in the table. Most ex vivo μCT studies assess adipose volume normalised to marrow volume or total tissue volume, although in some cases it is unclear which of these is used for normalisation. Other studies present absolute adipose volume or assess adipocyte density or area. We recommend that μCT-based readouts of adipose volume or area be reported relative to marrow volume (Ma.V) or marrow area (Ma.Ar), and that individual adipocyte areas be reported as the mean or median, or as a frequency distribution. This is consistent with our recommendations for histology-based measurements (Table 7). Further considerations are discussed in the main text. References for papers using each combination of term, abbreviation and unit are provided in Supplementary Table 8.