Effects of Anthropometric Indices of Truncal Adiposity on Sonomammographic Breast Parenchymal Patterns among Hausa Women With Breast Mass Attending Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano

Abstract

Introduction: Improving breast imaging and early detection techniques requires an understanding of how body fat distribution affects breast tissue structure. Although it has not been thoroughly studied in African women, truncal adiposity may affect the composition of breast tissue and the features of breast masses.

Aim: This study was aimed at comparing anthropometric measures of truncal adiposity across various sonomammographic breast parenchymal patterns and breast mass types among Hausa women with breast mass attending Aminu Kano teaching hospital.

Methods: One hundred Hausa women between the ages of 12 and 65 years participated in this descriptive cross-sectional study. Anthropometric measurements such as neck circumference (NC), waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC) were taken. Drive indices such as body adiposity index (BAI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were Calculated. Breast parenchymal patterns were divided into three categories using sonomammography: Homogeneous fatty (Pattern I), Heterogeneous fibroglandular (Pattern II) and Homogeneous fibroglandular (Pattern III). One-way Analyses of variance was used to compare adiposity indices between breast mass categories and parenchymal types.

Results: The most common patterns were Pattern II (38%), Pattern III (37%), and Pattern I (25%).  Significant differences in adiposity indices were observed among the three parenchymal patterns (p < 0.05), with Pattern I consistently showing higher adiposity values. Similarly, WC and WHtR values were significantly higher for solid breast masses than for cystic or mixed masses.

Conclusion: Breast parenchymal patterns and breast mass characteristics are significantly impacted by truncal adiposity. These results highlight how crucial it is to take body fat distribution into account when doing breast imaging and risk assessment for women in this group.