CT-based assessment of lower limb surface area, volume, and tissue composition: Implications for ecogeographic rules of thermoregulation

Anthropological research into human climatic adaptation has shown that global variation in skin surface-area to body volume ratio is generally consistent with theoretical predictions of ecogeographic rules. NSF has funded a research project in which human subjects will undergo full-body computed tomography scanning, and physiological testing during exposure to climatic extremes, to permit direct evaluation of associations between morphological variation and thermoregulatory physiology. This project entailed the development of analytical methods for the NSF project, which will be used to 1) compare CT-derived SA/V ratios to traditional estimation methods, and 2) to evaluate potential volume differences in internal tissue compositions (e.g., bone, muscle, fat).