Gastric wall fat halo sign in patients without intestinal disease.

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between gastric wall fat halo sign and visceral obesity with potentially associated diseases.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between September 2015 and April 2017, 90 patients with gastric wall fat halo signs and 130 controls were prospectively evaluated. Patient height, weight, body mass index (BMI), sex, age, subcutaneous fat area (SFA), visceral fat area (VFA), total fat area (TFA), percentage of visceral fat (VF%) and the presence of colic or ileal fat halo signs, hepatic steatosis and aortic calcified plaques were recorded for the two groups. Cut-off values for the VFA, TFA, and VF% were determined and the diagnostic efficacy was calculated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

RESULTS: No significant differences were found in age, BMI and SFA, but the VFA, VF%, TFA and frequencies of colic or ileal fat halo signs, hepatic steatosis and aortic calcified plaques were significantly higher in the patient group. The areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) were 0.803, 0.770 and 0.596 for VFA, VF% and TFA, respectively. The diagnostic efficacies of VFA and VF% were significantly higher than those of the TFA.

CONCLUSION: Gastric wall fat halo signs may be observed in overweight people, especially those with increased VFA and VF%. Additionally, these signs are usually observed along with fat halo signs of the colon or terminal ileum. However, extensive studies are needed to clarify the relationship between gastric wall fat halo signs and type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome.