This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Subcutaneous adipose tissue score predicts poor response to bariatric surgery
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The Fibrosis score of Adipose Tissue, or FAT score, a novel evaluation of subcutaneous adipose tissue, may be useful in identifying patients who respond poorly to gastric bypass surgery, researchers in France reported.
“Compared to lifestyle interventions, bariatric surgery procedures have proven their efficacy with major sustainable weight loss, comorbidity remission and overall mortality reduction in severely obese patients,” Pierre Bel Lassen, of the Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition, Paris, and colleagues wrote. “While bariatric surgery induces weight loss for most patients, there is significant inter-individual variability in the extent and profile of patient weight loss trajectories, and sometimes weight regain occurs. Thus, identifying relevant baseline predictors of weight loss response is essential to better inform bariatric surgery candidates and to assist clinical staff in individualizing patient postoperative follow-up.”
Bel Lassen and colleagues created the FAT score, which integrates both peri-lobular and peri-cellular fibrosis, to analyze 183 preoperative subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies of patients with severe obesity who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Researchers defined poor response to surgery as less than 28% of total weight lost at 1 year, and tested the association between poor response and FAT score using univariate and multivariate models.
Researchers reported an association between patients’ FAT scores and increasing subcutaneous adipose tissue fibrosis (P < .001). Overall, they reported good FAT score inter-observer agreement (κ = 0.76) and a significant association between poor response and FAT score of 2 or higher. After adjusting for age, diabetes status, hypertension, percent fat-mass and IL-6, the association remained strong (adjusted OR = 3.6; 95% CI, 1.8-7.2).
“In conclusion, we designed a simple, semi-quantitative evaluation of [subcutaneous adipose tissue fibrosis] which proved to be a good independent predictor of post-bariatric surgery weight loss outcomes,” the researchers wrote. “This score could constitute a new adipose tissue pathology marker to improve patient characterization in obesity clinical research. In clinical care, the FAT score may contribute to the identification of bariatric surgery poor responders and ultimately lead to a more personalized patient follow-up in the future.” – by Andy Polhamus
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts