Body composition in clinical practice

Abstract

a b s t r a c tNutritional status is the results of nutrients intake, absorption and utilization, able to influence physiological and pathological conditions. Nutritional status can be measured for individuals with different techniques, such as CT Body Composition, quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Ultrasound, DualEnergy X-Ray Absorptiometry and Bioimpendance. Because obesity is becoming a worldwide epidemic, there is an increasing interest in the study of body composition to monitor conditions and delay in development of obesity-related diseases. The emergence of these evidence demonstrates the need of standard assessment of nutritional status based on body weight changes, playing an important role in several clinical setting, such as in quantitative measurement of tissues and their fluctuations in body composition, in survival rate, in pathologic condition and illnesses. Since body mass index has been shown to be an imprecise measurement of fat-free and fat mass, body cell mass and fluids, providing no information if weight changes, consequently there is the need to find a better way to evaluate body composition, in order to assess fat-free and fat mass with weight gain and loss, and during ageing. Monitoring body composition can be very useful for nutritional and medical interventional. This review is focused on the use of Body Composition in Clinical Practice.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Peak Torque Differences between Vegetarian and Omnivore Endurance Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…We determined maximal oxygen uptake by a graded test to exhaustion on a treadmill instead of predicting VO2 max using a cycle ergometer, as recommended by Shepard and colleagues [32]. Additionally, we measured body composition using a DXA scan, currently regarded as the clinical gold standard for body composition assessment, instead of skinfolds [33]. Finally, we assessed both athletic performance and nutrient intake differences between vegetarians and omnivores, whereas most previously published studies focus exclusively on one of these areas.…”

A pilot study of radiologic measures of abdominal adiposity: weighty contributors to early pancreatic carcinogenesis worth evaluating?

“…Measures of total abdominal fat (TAF) area, VFA, and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) were obtained using the volume segmentation and thresholding tools in AW server version 2.0 software (General Electric, Waukesha, WI, USA). The axial L2-L3 intervertebral disc level was used for analysis because adipose tissue at this level corresponds to whole body quantities 45 and is well distinguished from skeletal muscle and other structures 40,46,47 . CT attenuation thresholds to define adipose tissue were set between –249 and –49 Hounsfield Units 44 .…”

“…Abdominal/visceral fat area (VFA) is a risk factor for pancreatic fat infiltration in patients with PC 37 and PanINs 38 , and is associated with poor PC outcomes 31,37,39 . Routine abdominal CT scans are the gold-standard for investigating quantitative radiologic features of abdominal adiposity (such as VFA) 40 , yet no published studies of these features exist for IPMN patients. We sought to determine if quantitative radiologic features of obesity extracted from abdominal CT scans can help to distinguish risk of malignant versus benign IPMNs.…”

Comparison of a mobile application to estimate percentage body fat to other non-laboratory based measurements

“…However given the previously mentioned limited access for this equipment [11,14], it was deemed appropriate to examine the software application against instruments with comparable access i.e. low-cost, convenience and portability [1]. Practitioners should always be cautious when interpreting percentage body fat results as all measurements are estimates, and field tests are likely to include some variance from 'gold-standard' laboratory methods.…”

“…Obesity is a significant worldwide epidemic [18], increasing in prevalence [4], and resulting in a need to monitor individuals' body composition [1] using accessible tools that allow robust analysis [18]. Body composition measurement is also pertinent from a sporting context, as the values may help practitioners tailor dietary interventions and evaluate training programs [17].…”