Prediction of presence and severity of metabolic syndrome using regional body volumes measured by a multisensor white-light 3D scanner and validation using a mobile technology.

Aims: To test whether an index based on the combination of demographics and body volumes obtained with a multisensor 3D body volume (3D-BV) scanner and biplane imaging using a mobile application (myBVI®) will reliably predict the severity and presence of metabolic syndrome (MS).

Methods and results: We enrolled 1280 consecutive subjects who completed study protocol measurements, including 3D-BV and myBVI®. Body volumes and demographics were screened using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator to select features associated with an MS severity score and prevalence. We randomly selected 80% of the subjects to train the models, and performance was assessed in 20% of the remaining observations and externally validated on 133 volunteers who prospectively underwent myBVI® measurements. The mean ± SD age was 43.7 ± 12.2 years, 63.7% were women, body mass index (BMI) was 28.2 ± 6.2 kg/m², and 30.2% had MS and an MS severity z-score of -0.2 ± 0.9. Features β coefficients equal to zero were removed from the model, and 14 were included in the final model and used to calculate the body volume index (BVI), demonstrating an area under the receiving operating curve (AUC) of 0.83 in the validation set. The myBVI® cohort had a mean age of 33 ± 10.3 years, 61% of whom were women, 10.5% MS, an average MS severity z-score of -0.8, and an AUC of 0.88.

Conclusion: The described BVI model was associated with an increased severity and prevalence of MS compared with BMI and waist-to-hip ratio. Validation of the BVI had excellent performance when using myBVI®. This model could serve as a powerful screening tool for identifying MS.