R N Baumgartner

Status of anthropometry and body composition data in elderly subjects.

Understanding the normal changes in the body and its composition with increasing old age and their health implications are important to the health care and nutritional support of elderly subjects. Distribution statistics for selected body measurements of persons aged 65-80 y are available from the national health surveys. Recumbent anthropometric techniques and B-mode ultrasound may be applicable to measuring those greater than 80 y who have difficulty standing or are chair- or bedfast. The problems of estimating body composition in elderly subjects could be improved by using a four-compartment model. Noninvasive methods, such as anthropometry and bioelectric impedance, could be used to predict body composition in elderly subjects if appropriate equations were available and validated against direct methods. The most pressing need is for the development of suitable reference data for anthropometry and body composition in large representative samples of black, white, Hispanic and Oriental elderly persons in the US.

Magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brains of schizophrenic patients.

Magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brains of schizophrenic and control subjects were performed using a 0.3 Tesla superconducting magnet. Quantitative measurements of ventricular size, sulcal width, and standardized image intensity were performed. There were no significant differences between schizophrenic and comparison subjects for linear or area measures related to ventricular size, corpus collusum size, or cortical atrophy. However, schizophrenics had a significantly higher image intensity in the inversion recovery mode (IR-30). Since the IR-30 images are T1 weighted, this suggests that there may be differences in T1 relaxation times in tissues in some areas of the brains of schizophrenics as compared to controls. However, more precise measurements of T1 relaxation time are needed to confirm this finding.

Clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in association with indices of adiposity and adipose tissue distribution in adults

The hypothesis, that clustering of elevated levels of blood pressures, plasma lipids and lipoprotein cholesterols, and serum glucose in men and women was associated with indices of adiposity and adipose tissue distributione was tested while controlling for family membership, age, level of education, income, and smoking as well as menopause (surgical and natural )and the use of oral contraceptives and replacement estrogens in women. The study population included 146 white men and 171 white women, 18–88 years of age, from 4 large kindreds residing in the Dayton, Ohio, metropolitan area. The data were collected between 1977 and 1980 as part of a study of genetic factors in essentials hypertension. Four groups of individuals with similar levels for blood pressures, plasma lipids and lipoprotein cholesterols, and serum glucose were defined for each sex by using a k‐means clustering algorithm. A group was identified in each sex that had higher than average values for all of these risk factors. Membership in this group was associated significantly with age and weight/stature2 in the men, and with age, weight/stature2 and the interaction of age and weight/stature2 in the women, after controlling for level of education, income, smoking, and, in the women, also for menopause, use of oral contraceptives, and replacement estrogens. Group membership was not associated significantly with family membership or with an index of adipose tissue distribution.

Maturity and its relationship to plasma lipid and lipoprotein levels in adolescents: The Fels longitudinal study

During adolescence, changes in lipid and lipoprotein levels have been reported to be associated with changes in body composition and changes in endogenous testosterone and estradiol. These hormone levels are directly correlated with sexual and skeletal maturity levels. The purpose of the present study was to determine if there are associations during pubescence and adolescence, independent of chronological age, between measures of maturity and body composition or plasma lipid and lipoprotein cholesterols. Skeletal maturity was measured on the basis of skeletal assessments of the bones of the knee joint. Age at peak height velocity was determined from serial stature measurements and, in girls, age at menarche was recorded. These measures of maturity, as well as measures of percent body fat, total body fat, total body fat mass, fat‐free mass from underwater weighing, and plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, highdensity lipoprotein‐cholesterol, and low‐density lipoprotein‐cholesterol levels from 502 observations on 174 boys and girls enrolled in the Fels Longitudinal Study were used in the analysis. Within annual chronological age groups, no associations were found between level of maturity and lipid and lipoprotein level or percent body fat in boys or girls. However, changes in lipid and lipoprotein levels over time appeared to be more apparent when age grouping were based on skeletal age than when they were based on chronological age.

Association of adipose tissue distribution with relative skeletal age in boys: The Fels longitudinal study

The association between relative skeletal age and fat patterning was analyzed by using data from the Fels Longitudinal Study for boys at chronological ages 8 to 17 years. Fat patterning, as indicated by age‐specific means for three skinfold thickness indices adjusted for weight/stature2, was peripheral between 8 and 12 years of chronological age but began to increase in a centripetal direction towards a generalized distribution after 13 years. From 14 to 17 years of chronological age, boys with advanced relative skeletal ages had more centripetal fat patterns, as indicated by the ratio subscapular/(subscapular + triceps) skinfolds, than did those with retarded skeletal ages. The mean annual increment in this ratio was significantly greater from 13 to 14 years of chronological age in boys with advanced relative skeletal ages than in those with retarded relative skeletal ages. Fat pattern index scores at 17 years of chronological age, however, could not be predicted from relative skeletal ages at 7, 11, or 14 years after adjustment for baseline fat pattern index scores and weight/stature2. It was concluded that fat patterning, as quantified by the ratio indices used in this study, was associated more strongly with other indicators of relative maturity such as secondary sex characteristics in adolescent boys.