Mean corpuscular volume tied to body composition

A lower mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is associated with worse body composition in people without anaemia, a recent study has found. This includes lower muscle quality and quantity, visceral obesity, and sarcopoenia.

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional investigation of 702 adults who had normal MCV levels and had no anaemia. Skeletal muscle index (SMI) and visceral fat area (VFA) were measured using computed tomography. Participants were then divided into four subgroups according to sex-specific quartiles of MCV.

Multiple regression analysis found a significant and inverse correlation between MCV and VFA index (β, –0.107; p=0.0007). On the other hand, MCV was positively associated with total SMI (β, 0.053; p=0.0341), total skeletal muscle density (β, 0.099; p=0.0012), and the normal-attenuation muscle index (β, 0.061; p=0.0166).

In turn, increasing quartiles of MCV correlated with significantly lower rates of sarcopoenia (Q4 vs Q1: odds ratio [OR], 0.48, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.27–0.83; p=0.0089) and visceral obesity (Q4 vs Q1: OR, 0.49, 95 percent CI, 0.27–0.88; p=0.0170).

This pattern of interaction remained true when MCV was taken as a continuous variable. Every 1-fL increment in MCV led to a 7-percent drop in the prevalence of sarcopoenia (OR, 0.93, 95 percent CI, 0.88–0.98; p=0.0097) and a 9-percent reduction in that of visceral obesity (OR, 0.91, 95 percent CI, 0.86–0.97; p=0.0046).

MCV had a similar relationship with sarcopoenic obesity, with its prevalence decreasing as MCV increased, but it failed to reach statistical significance in the fully adjusted models.