Central obesity index (COI) is useful method for assessing body fat distribution. It was used to divide 110 women according to their body fat distribution in 3 groups: 1st group with normal body fat distribution and COI<0.8; 2nd group with moderate visceral obesity and 0.81.0. Densitometric indexes (DI) of visceral obesity were de termined: COI = an droid/gynoid fat mass % (A%/G%), arm+leg/trunk fat mass (AL/T), legs/trunk (L/TR), legs/to tal (L/T) and trunk/total fat mass (TR/T), and anthropometric indexes (AI) of visceral obesity: waist/hip ra tio (WHR), waist/thigh ratio (WTR), sagittal diameter (SAD), SAD/waist ratio (SAD/W), SAD/thigh ratio (SAD/T), SAD/hip ratio (SAD/H) and SAD/height ratio (SAD/HT). BMI, body weight (BW), total fat mass, G and SAD/W were not different between the 2nd and the 3rd group. W, WHR, WTR, SAD, SAD/T, SAD/H, SAD/HT values were significantly different among the groups (p<0.0001). AL/T values in the 1st group 1.17±0.17, in the 2nd group 0.93±0.14 and 3rd group 0.69±0.08, and the correspondent values of other DIL/TR 0.89±0.14, 0.73±0.11 and 0.53±0.08; L/T 0.43±0.04, 0.37±0.04 and 0.29±0.03; and TR/T 0.45±0.04, 0.51±0.04 and 0.58±0.03 were highly significantly different among the groups (p<0.0001). COI correlated highly significantly with DI and AI, and A (p<0.0001), but not with G, and SAD/W. Other DI and AI correlated highly significantly with A, but not with G. Extreme visceral obese women were characterized with significantly highest values of DI and AI indexes, except BMI, BW, SD/W, total and G fat mass. They were confirmed as very useful indicators of visceral obesity.
