The scope of this article is to assess the suitability of the measurement techniques and the cutoff points of anthropometric indicators of abdominal obesity adopted in Brazil, and summarize the results. This involves a review of the literature published from 1990 to 2010 and indexed in the MEDLINE, LILACS and SciELO databases. The inclusion criteria for articles were: original research articles with abstracts available of experimental or observational design conducted in Brazil, in English, Spanish or Portuguese; articles about assessment of abdominal obesity with the use of anthropometric indicators of central distribution. Eighteen articles characterized according to author and publication year, study site, study type, sample size, age, sex, anthropometric indicators, measurement techniques, cutoff points and main results were selected. A divergence was found between studies in terms of standardized technical procedures and cutoff points. The results of this review recommend the standardized use of the validated measurement techniques and cutoff points in order to facilitate comparison of the results of the epidemiological studies into abdominal obesity and their adequate use in clinical practice.