An evaluation of organ volume in well-trained strength athletes

Well-trained strength athletes use exercise, diet and often androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS) to reduce fat mass and increase muscle mass and strength. In addition, it is suggested that AAS may also stimulate hypertrophy in other tissues such as the abdominal organs. However, difficulty in the quantification of abdominal organ volume in vivo has limited research in this area. Recent advances now allow whole-body MRI-scans to be analysed in order to quantify (regional) organ volume. This allows the quantification of the volume of specific (abdominal) organs.
Much research has included assessment of muscle mass, thickness, cross-sectional area, or circumference. However, whole-body MRI scanning also allows the quantification of (regional) muscle volume. This allows the quantification of the volume of specific muscle groups. Regional muscle volume is of interest, as previous work (that used other techniques than the golden standard method whole-body MRI) suggests that muscle hypertrophy in response to resistance exercise does not occur uniformly among muscle groups. However, little remains known about regional abdominal organ and muscle volume in various populations.

1. We hypothesize that well-trained strength athletes (using AAS) will have significantly greater organ volume when compared to well-trained strength athletes (not using AAS) and recreationally active participants (not using AAS).
2. We hypothesize that well-trained strength athletes (using AAS) will have significantly greater muscle volume when compared to well-trained strength athletes (not using AAS) and recreationally active participants (not using AAS), but that the relative differences are not uniformly distributed.
3. We hypothesize that single slice CT, DEXA, BIA and ultrasound provide reliable estimations of whole-body muscle volume, whereas skinfold measurement and tape measurement do not when compared to MRI in well-trained strength athletes (using AAS), well-trained strength athletes (not using AAS) and healthy controls (i.e., recreationally active participants (not using AAS).

Single