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World J Diabetes. May 15, 2026; 17(5): 117583
Published online May 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i5.117583
Published online May 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i5.117583
Visceral fat area and remnant cholesterol in type 2 diabetes: Nonlinear associations and thresholds
Dong-Jian Chai, Department of Cardiology, The Quzhou Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Quzhou People’s Hospital, Quzhou 324000, Zhejiang Province, China
Chun-Yan Zhu, Yi-Ming Zhang, Zi-Chen Rao, Department of Endocrinology, The Quzhou Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Quzhou People’s Hospital, Quzhou 324000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Chai DJ, Zhang YM and Rao ZC designed the research study, performed the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; Zhu CY contributed to investigation, data curation, methodology, supervision, resources and project administration, and reviewed and edited the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Quzhou People's Hospital (Approval No. 2022-110).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to institutional data protection policies but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Zi-Chen Rao, MD, Department of Endocrinology, The Quzhou Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Quzhou People’s Hospital, No. 100 Minjiang Dadao, West District, Quzhou 324000, Zhejiang Province, China. rzc1522@wmu.edu.cn
Received: December 11, 2025
Revised: January 16, 2026
Accepted: March 10, 2026
Published online: May 15, 2026
Processing time: 152 Days and 1.3 Hours
Revised: January 16, 2026
Accepted: March 10, 2026
Published online: May 15, 2026
Processing time: 152 Days and 1.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This cross-sectional study of adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) quantified visceral fat area (VFA) and examined its associations with residual cholesterol (RC) and the RC-inflammation index (RCII; RC/C-reactive protein). Higher VFA was independently associated with higher RC, and showed a clear non-linear pattern with a threshold at 126 cm2. RCII showed a weaker association and only a borderline threshold signal at 118 cm2, which should be interpreted as exploratory. These findings suggest that quantifying VFA may help contextualize remnant cholesterol-related burden beyond conventional lipid measures in T2D.