Holtain-Kahn Abdominal Caliper

The Holtain-Kahn Abdominal Caliper has been developed to aid the prediction of cardiac risk by measuring sagittal abdominal diameter in supine subjects.

This sagittal abdominal diameter is highly correlated with the volume of visceral fat (Kvist H, et al. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION 1988; 48: 1351-61 and Sjostrom L INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBESITY 1991; 15 (Suppl. 2): 19-30).

This caliper makes a direct reading of the distance between the subject's back and the front of the subject's abdomen.

The inbuilt spirit level (which ensures a vertical measurement is taken) has helped to give estimates of intra observer precision which produced a mean of absolute deviation of 0.4cm, coefficient of variation of 2.5% and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 95.8 (Williamson D. et al. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 1993; 5: 159-167).

"Simple Anthropometric Indices Associated with Ischemic Heart Disease" (Kahn, H.S. et al. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY 1996; 49: 1017-1024 )

"The abdominal diameter index and sudden coronary death in men" (Kahn H.S. et al. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY 1996; 78: 961-964)

"Waist circumference and abdominal sagittal diameter: best simple anthropometric indexes of abdominal visceral adipose tissue accumulation and related cardiovascular risk in men and women" (Pouliot M-C. et al. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY 1994; 73: 460-468)

"Associations between different anthropometric measurements of fatness and metabolic risk parameters in non-obese, healthy, middle-aged men" (Richelsen B. et al. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBESITY RELATED METABOLIC DISORDERS 1995; 19: 169-174)

"Anthropometric correlates to changes in visceral adipose tissue over 7 years in women" (Lemieux S. et al. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBESITY RELATED METABOLIC DISORDERS 1996; 20: 618-624)

"Relation of Abdominal Height to Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Young Adults" (Gustat J. et al. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY 2000; 151: 885-891)

"Sagittal diameter compared with other anthropometric measurements in relation to cardiovascular risk" (Ohrvall M. et al. INT J OBES RELAT METAB DISORD 2000 (April); 24: 497-501)