Table 1:

Simple Clinical Tools to Assess/Manage Abdominal Obesity

Within subgroups of patients who are normal weight, overweight or living with obesity, there is a linear increase in CVD risk as a function of increased waist circumference, with no obvious cut-off value. Measuring only BMI or waist circumference alone is however not sufficient to optimally assess visceral fat which is associated with CVD risk. Hypertriglyceridemic waist, a simple clinical phenotype defined by an elevated waistline (≥90 cm in men and ≥85 cm in women) combined with increased triglyceride levels (≥177 mg/dl [2.0 mmol/l] in men and ≥133 mg/dl [1.5 mmol/l] in women), is predictive of the presence of visceral obesity. A waistline reduction ≥4 cm in patients with visceral obesity is associated with considerable improvements in their CVD risk profile.