Abdominal distribution of body fat is usually measured in epidemiological studies as the ratio of the circumferences of the waist and hip, the waist/hip ratio (WHR). Several recent studies have now shown that although the WHR is a convenient method to evaluate the abdominal distribution of body fat in epidemiological studies, it is the mass of intra-abdominal fat that is most closely associated statistically to the established CVD and NIDDM risk factors mentioned above (for reviews and detailed references, see references 1 to 5).

Intra-abdominal adipose tissue has some metabolic characteristics that are unique in comparison with other adipose tissues, and, interestingly, this seems to be most pronounced for the regions that are drained by the portal circulation (omental and mesenteric adipose tissues). These portal adipose tissues have an exceedingly sensitive system for the mobilization of free fatty acids (FFA) due to a preponderance of 0-adrenergic receptors and little a-adrenergic inhibition. This is seen in normal men and in abdominally obese women, but not in normal women or obese women with a gluteal-femoral adipose