RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Visceral abdominal Fat, not Subcutaneous Abdominal Fat better correlates with insulin resistance. Hence the present study was undertaken to study the association of sonographically assessed visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat with insulin resistance in patients with pre-diabetes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was a hospital based cross sectional study done in prediabetes subjects. All the subjects were called fasting overnight and were given a structured questionnaire designed by investigator. Fasting and postprandial blood sugar, lipid profile, HB1Ac and fasting insulin levels was done in every subject. Ultrasound assessment of subcutaneous and visceral abdominal fat, fatty liver and fatty pancreas was done. RESULTS: Seventy Five patients (males 35 and females 40) were studied. Twenty nine patients had fatty liver and 40 patients had fatty pancreas. Among all sonographic parameters visceral abdominal fat thickness (VAF) showed a significant positive correlation with insulin resistance (p< 0.05). Subcutaneous abdominal fat thickness (SAF) had a positive though statistically non significant correlation with insulin resistance. Visceral abdominal fat thickness correlated best with fatty pancreas and had a significant positive correlation with insulin resistance. CONCLUSION: Fatty pancreas and visceral abdominal fat prove to be two important indices which mark the risk of insulin resistance thus may be considered an important predictor for screening of metabolic syndrome.