Bioelectrical impedance analysis—part I: review of principles and methods

• Published in: Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 1226 - 1243
• Main Authors: Kyle, Ursula G., Bosaeus, Ingvar, De Lorenzo, Antonio D., Deurenberg, Paul, Elia, Marinos, Gómez, José Manuel, Heitmann, Berit Lilienthal, Kent-Smith, Luisa, Melchior, Jean-Claude, Pirlich, Matthias, Scharfetter, Hermann, Schols, Annemie M.W.J., Pichard, Claude
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 2004; Elsevier
• Subjects: Bioelectrical impedance analysis; Bioelectrical spectroscopy; Biological and medical sciences; Body cell mass; Body Composition; Body Composition - physiology; Body Water; Body Water - physiology; Body Weight; Electric Impedance; ESPEN guidelines; Extracellular water; Fat-free mass; Humans; Intracellular water; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical sciences; Metabolic diseases; Multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis; Nutrition and Dietetics; Näringslära och dietkunskap; Pathology. Cytology. Biochemistry. Spectrometry. Miscellaneous investigative techniques; physiology; Practice Guidelines; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Reference Values; Reproducibility of Results; Segmental bioelectrical impedance analysis; Sensitivity and Specificity; Total body water; BF; Total body water; Fat-free mass; Intracellular water; Bioelectrical spectroscopy; Xc; FFM; Body cell mass; R; Z; BIA; TBK; ESPEN guidelines; BMI; PhA; TBW; Multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis; Segmental bioelectrical impedance analysis; DXA; BCM; BIS; BIVA; Extracellular water; Bioelectrical impedance analysis; SF-BIA; MF-BIA; ECW; ICW; Human; Review; Technique; Impedance; ioimpedance
• ISSN: 0261-5614; 1532-1983
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2004.06.004

The use of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is widespread both in healthy subjects and patients, but suffers from a lack of standardized method and quality control procedures. BIA allows the determination of the fat-free mass (FFM) and total body water (TBW) in subjects without significant fluid and electrolyte abnormalities, when using appropriate population, age or pathology-specific BIA equations and established procedures. Published BIA equations validated against a reference method in a sufficiently large number of subjects are presented and ranked according to the standard error of the estimate. The determination of changes in body cell mass (BCM), extra cellular (ECW) and intra cellular water (ICW) requires further research using a valid model that guarantees that ECW changes do not corrupt the ICW. The use of segmental-BIA, multifrequency BIA, or bioelectrical spectroscopy in altered hydration states also requires further research. ESPEN guidelines for the clinical use of BIA measurements are described in a paper to appear soon in Clinical Nutrition.