Review Analysis of the Association between the Prevalence of Activated Brown Adipose Tissue and Outdoor Temperature
Figure 3
A simple linear regression was done for the review analysis of the association between the prevalence of activated BAT with 18F-FDG uptake and the average outdoor temperatures during the study period. (a) The prevalence of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in the 8 previous studies [8–15] (white circles) and our patients (black circle), plotted against the average outdoor temperatures during the study period. There was a significant negative correlation (, slope = −0.20, ) between the prevalence of activated BAT on 18F-FDG PET scans and the average outdoor temperature. (b) The prevalence of BAT in the 8 previous studies (white circles) and our data grouped into 4 seasons (gray circles) plotted against the average outdoor temperature during the study period. The correlation was more significant (, slope = −0.21, ). The solid line is the linear regression line; dashed lines indicate the 95% confidence intervals.