Quantitative CT parameters related to abdominal and dorsal fat content for predicting early postoperative complications of esophageal cancer
Objective To investigate the value of quantitative CT(QCT)parameters related to abdominal and dorsal fat content for predicting early postoperative complications of esophageal cancer.Methods A total of 184 patients who underwent radical esophageal cancer surgery were retrospectively collected and divided into complication group(n=76)and control group(n=108)according to whether early postoperation complication(within 30 days after surgery)occurred or not.QCT was used to obtain parameters related to abdominal and dorsal fat content,including visceral fat area(VFA),subcutaneous fat area(SFA),VFA/SFA and the degree of muscle fat infiltration(MFI)of posterior vertebral muscles based on L3 central-level CT images.Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze clinical and pathological data as well as QCT parameters related to abdominal and dorsal fat content to screen independent risk factors for early postoperative complications of esophageal cancer.Then receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was drawn,and the area under the curve(AUC)was calculated to evaluate the efficacy of each independent risk factor alone and their combination for predicting early postoperative complications of esophageal cancer.Results VFA/SFA and MFI degree of posterior vertebral muscles were both independent risk factors for early postoperative complications of esophageal cancer(OR=5.121,1.110,both P<0.05).The AUC of VFA/SFA and MFI degree of posterior vertebral muscle was 0.81 and 0.77,respectively,while of their combination was 0.84.Conclusion QCT parameters related to abdominal and dorsal fat content could be used to effectively predict early complications of esophageal cancer after surgery.