Published on Nov. 27, 2018

Body Condition Score is the veterinary equivalent of BMI in humans, in which veterinarians attempt to assess adiposity of an animal and make appropriate recommendations. However, this measure of adiposity is fairly subjective and quite variable depending on the species being analyzed. Thus, a more quantifiable and objective measure of adiposity, through the utilization of initially CT scans and subsequently through radiographs would be beneficial. CT scans were taken from the University of Missouri Veterinary Health Center PACS from patients who had received thoracic CT scans, a full body CT scan, as well as a thoracic and abdominal CT scan. OTSU thresholding and an inversion algorithm were utilized to select only the patient, while a threshold algorithm was then applied to isolate out the adipose tissue from the remainder of the tissue. Percent adiposity from each provided region were then compared and presented in contrast to the allocated body condition score from the consensus of clinicians. Results showed that the allocated body condition score had a wide range of adiposities associated with it, including adiposity ranges that overlapped across multiple body condition scores, which provides evidence that the subjective measure of body condition score may be worse at assessing adiposity when compared to volumetric analysis of adiposity.