Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry study of body composition in patients with lipodystrophy.

L ipodystrophies are acquired or inherited disorders characterized by selective or generalized loss of adipose tissue. Affected patients are predisposed to insulin resistance and metabolic complications of insulin resistance (1). Noticeably, patients with acquired or hereditary generalized forms are extremely insulin resistant (2,3). On the other hand, in partial forms the ample phenotypic spectrum determines clinical presentations and metabolic profiles of variable degrees (4). Among diagnostic resources for fat distribution evaluation, dualenergy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) has been utilized because of its accuracy, reproducibility, and good correlation with computerized tomography (5,6). The purpose of this study was to evaluate body composition with DEXA in patients with different types of lipodystrophy and to determine the correlation between densitometric, clinical, and metabolic features.