Body composition analysis: An overview with bioimpedance

Knowledge of body composition is an important part of day-to-day life. The body composition parameters are helpful in monitoring the performance of body during normal or abnormal conditions. Its impact is very high on clinical nutrition's. Bioimpedance is the major parameter for body composition analysis.

The aim of this study is to review the techniques used for body composition analysis with the help of bioimpedance. The main purpose of this paper is to provide appropriate background to measure body composition parameters.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis is a widely used method to estimate body composition. Bioimpedance monitoring is an emerging tool for body composition analysis. The body composition parameters such as fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass (FM), body cell mass (BCM), total body water (TBW), extracellular water (ECW) and intracellular water (ICW) play an important role in keeping the health normal. Fat mass is strongly associated with the risk of several chronic diseases.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a relatively simple, quick and non-invasive technique to measure body composition. The comparison of various techniques such as SF-BIA, MF-BIA, Segmental BIA, Upper-body & lower-body BIA and Laboratory designed BIA has been done on the basis of application of low level current and frequency used. It is concluded that all these methods are helpful in particular applications.