The role of exercise combined with tocilizumab in visceral and epicardial adipose tissue and gastric emptying rate in abdominally obese participants: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Table 2 Outcome domains and measures assessed at baseline and follow-up (12 weeks after baseline)

Outcome	Domain	Measurement
Primary	Visceral fat tissue volume	MRI
Secondary	Epicardial adipose tissue thickness/area/volume	Cardiac MRI
Secondary	Pericardial adipose tissue thickness/ area/volume Gastric emptying rate	Cardiac MRI MMTT and PCM
Other	Total body fat mass	DXA
	Total body muscle mass	DXA
	Resting blood pressure	BP monitor
	Heart rate recovery	Heart rate strap
	Maximal aerobic capacity (cardiovascular fitness)	VO₂ max test
	Muscle strength	One-RM test
	Diabetes, pre-diabetes and glucose tolerance	OGTT
	Glycaemic control during mixed-meal tolerance test	MMTT
	Free-living glycaemic control	CGM
	Acute exercise bout^a	Blood tests
	Low-grade inflammation^b	Blood tests
	Cardiometabolic biomarkers^c and adipokines	Blood tests

Abbreviations: CGM Continuous glucose monitoring, DXA Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, MMTT Mixed-meal tolerance test, MRI Magnetic resonance imaging, OGTT Oral glucose tolerance test, PCM Paracetamol, RM Repetition maximum
^aBlood will be analysed for exercise factors, including interleukin-6, immune cell counts and function, and biomarkers of low-grade inflammation
^bBlood will be analysed for biomarkers of low-grade inflammation, including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, tumour necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ and interleukins
^cBlood will be analysed for cardiometabolic biomarkers, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, glycated haemoglobin, fasting insulin, fasting glucose and pro-brain natriuretic peptide

ISSN: 1745-6215