Background: Obesity and diabetes mellitus (DM) are established risk factors for the development of chronic kidney disease. Visceral adiposity (VAT) and subcutaneous adiposity (SAT) may be associated with the differential metabolic risk. Our study was performed to determine whether VAT or SAT was associated with the decrease of renal function in people with type 2 DM.
Methods: Nine hundred and twenty-nine people with type 2 DM and who had undergone abdominal computed tomography assessment of the SAT and VAT areas were included. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated using the Cockcroft-Gault equation and the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) four-variable equation at the time of the assessment of the SAT and VAT areas.
Results: VAT was negatively associated with eGFR using the MDRD equation after adjustment for the clinical variables (β-coefficient = - 0.075, P = 0.034), while SAT was not significantly associated with eGFR. There was no significant association between the abdominal adiposity measurements and the eGFR using the Cockcroft-Gault formula. When stratifying the individuals by the body mass index groups, VAT was negatively associated with eGFR by the MDRD equation and the Cockcroft-Gault formula in the overweight and obese subjects after adjustment for the clinical variables, while there was no significant association between the VAT and the eGFR in the normal weight subjects. SAT was not significantly associated with eGFR in the normal weight, overweight and obese subjects.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that VAT may be an additional prognostic factor for the decrease of renal function especially in the overweight or obese subjects with type 2 DM.