Higher intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) was associated with higher prevalence of diabetes even after adjustment for visceral adipose tissue VAT, according to a recent study. Researchers measured abdominal muscle composition in 3,170 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study who underwent computed tomography (CT) at year 25 (ages 43‐55 years) of follow‐up. Multinomial regression analyses were used to evaluate the associations of CT measured IMAT, lean muscle (lean), VAT volumes with diabetes ever during CARDIA, newly detected prediabetes, prior history of prediabetes, and normal glucose tolerance. They found:

• Higher IMAT, lean, and VAT volumes were all separately associated with a higher prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes.
• Inclusion of VAT in models with both IMAT and lean volume attenuated the association of IMAT with both prediabetes and diabetes, but higher lean volume retained its association with prediabetes and diabetes.
• People in the highest IMAT quartile coupled with VAT in its lower 3 quartiles had higher prevalence of diabetes, but not prediabetes, than those with both IMAT and VAT in their respective lower 3 quartiles.
• Adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness did not substantially change the findings.