Observational studyBMC infectious diseases2021
Impact of visceral fat on the prognosis of coronavirus disease 2019: an observational cohort study.
Observational study in BMC infectious diseases, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence and clinical implications of abnormal body composition phenotypes in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Beyond body mass index: exploring the role of visceral adipose tissue in intensive care unit outcomes.BJA open · 2025Review
- Effect of Open-Wedge High Tibial Osteotomy and Lateral Retinacular Release on the Articular Cartilage of the Patellofemoral Joint: Analysis Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging T2 Mapping.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Association of excess visceral fat and severe illness in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Japan: a retrospective cohort study.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2024Article
- Anthropometric Measurements and Admission Parameters as Predictors of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Article
- Assessment of body composition in adults hospitalized with acute COVID-19: a scoping review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Bayesian networks and imaging-derived phenotypes highlight the role of fat deposition in COVID-19 hospitalisation risk.Frontiers in bioinformatics · 2023Article
- Article
- Prognostic Impact of Myosteatosis on Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Obesity and Leptin Resistance in the Regulation of the Type I Interferon Early Response and the Increased Risk for Severe COVID-19.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Article
- Sleep Deprivation, Immune Suppression and SARS-CoV-2 Infection.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Visceral adipose tissue and risk of COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity: A Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The Role of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis in Predicting COVID-19 Outcome.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundClarification of the risk factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity is strongly warranted for global health. Recent studies have indicated that elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with unfavorable progression of COVID-19. This is assumed to be due to excessive deposition of visceral adipose tissue (VAT); however, the evidence investigating the association between intra-abdominal fat and COVID-19 prognosis is sparse. We therefore investigated whether measuring the amount of intra-abdominal fat is useful to predict the prognosis of COVID-19.
methodsThe present study enrolled 53 consecutive cases of COVID-19 patients aged ≥ 20 years with chest computed tomography (CT) scans. The VAT area, total adipose tissue (TAT) area, and VAT/TAT ratio were estimated using axial CT images at the level of the upper pole of the right kidney. Severe COVID-19 was defined as death or acute respiratory failure demanding oxygen at ≥ 6 L per minute, a high-flow nasal cannula, or mechanical ventilation. The association of VAT/TAT with the incidence of progression to a severe state was estimated as a hazard ratio (HR) using Cox regression analysis. To compare the prediction ability for COVID-19 disease progression between BMI and VAT/TAT, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of each was assessed.
resultsA total of 15 cases (28.3% of the whole study subjects) progressed to severe stages. The incidence of developing severe COVID-19 increased significantly with VAT/TAT (HR per 1% increase = 1.040 (95% CI 1.008-1.074), P = 0.01). After adjustment for potential confounders, the positive association of VAT/TAT with COVID-19 aggravation remained significant (multivariable-adjusted HR = 1.055 (95% CI 1.000-1.112) per 1% increase, P = 0.049). The predictive ability of VAT/TAT for COVID-19 becoming severe was significantly better than that of BMI (AUC of 0.73 for VAT/TAT and 0.50 for BMI; P = 0.0495 for the difference).
conclusionsA higher ratio of VAT/TAT was an independent risk factor for disease progression among COVID-19 patients. VAT/TAT was superior to BMI in predicting COVID-19 morbidity. COVID-19 patients with high VAT/TAT levels should be carefully observed as high-risk individuals for morbidity and mortality.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.