Leptin—a parameter for body fat measurement in patients with eating disorders
✍ Scribed by S. Zipfel; T. Specht; W. F. Blum; J. Hebebrand; P. Englaro; M. Hartmann; C. Wüster; R. Ziegler; W. Herzog
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 105 KB
- Volume
- 6
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1072-4133
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✦ Synopsis
Plasma levels of leptin correlate with the body mass index and even more with percentage body fat. Determinations of leptin levels might thus offer an alternative to easily assess fat mass in patients with eating disorders. Twenty-®ve females with the DSM-IV diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (n 12, mean BMI 13.8) and bulimia nervosa (n 13, mean BMI 21.7), respectively, were examined upon referral for inpatient treatment. Methods for the measurement of body fat were BMI and plasma leptin level; dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used as a reference method. Leptin levels showed a highly signi®cant correlation to body fat measured by DXA (r 0.95, p 5 0.001). In the group of anorexia patients the correlation of leptin levels with DXA (r 0.91, p 5 0.001) was signi®cantly higher than with BMI (r 0.62, p 5 0.05). Measurement of leptin levels in AN patients is a promising approach for determining percentage body fat, especially at admission for inpatient treatment, prior to refeeding. *