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Reply to readers’ comment on “Body weight difference between dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis attenuates the equivalence of body composition assessment”

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 73, pages 809–810 (2019)Cite this article

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Safer raised a concern about the measurement bias of multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MF-BIA) and requested a detail description of pretest protocol. As MF-BIA devices, especially InBody series, have been widely used in clinical practice and research activities in Korea, pretest conditions those are clarified clearly in manufacturer’s guideline have been followed essentially. In our work, MF-BIAs were measured after 8–10 h of fasting, a night of refrain of stimulants such as alcohol, caffeine drink, and exercise, within 30–60 min after collection of the urine sample and were performed between 9:30–10:00 AM. Participants with medication were asked to postpone their medication consumption until the completion of the measurement. As presented in the article, the women in the study are relatively old (aged 53–83 years) and most of them are menopausal. Furthermore, because the MF-BIAs have been conducted by trained technicians following a strict standard operating procedure, the measurement bias has been kept to a minimum.

Safer also concern about why we used MF-BIA for DXA validation study, but not other gold standard tools. In our study, the first finding that total mass estimated by DXA was relatively different with actual body weight (BW) in some individuals suggests a potential bias in body composition analysis (BCA) of this device, in term of the sum of body components. The second finding that a lower agreement between DXA body mass and actual BW (equivalent with BW measured by MF-BIA device) was associated with a lower agreement between DXA and MF-BIA in BCA solely suggests a need of calibration for DXA body mass in MF-BIA validation studies [1,2,3] those employed DXA as the reference. Obviously, whether the low agreement in BW of DXA scan induces any measurement bias in BCA by DXA should be examined using more precise BCA tools (e.g. four-compartment model) as the reference.

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References

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Funding

This research was supported by a fund (2014-E71003-00) from the research of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (No. 2015M3A9B6027142 and 2015M3A9B6028310).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Ulsan College of Medicine, 388-1 Poongnap-dong, Songpa-Gu, Seoul, 138-736, Republic of Korea

    Duong Duc Pham & Chae Hun Leem

  2. Institute of Human Genomic study, Korea University Ansan Hospital, 123, Jeokeum-ro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, 15355, Republic of Korea

    Seung Ku Lee & Chol Shin

  3. Division of Pulmonary, Sleep, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University Ansan Hospital, 123, Jeokeum-ro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, 15355, Republic of Korea

    Chol Shin

  4. Division of Endocrinology, Sleep, Korea University Ansan Hospital, 123, Jeokeum-ro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, 15355, Republic of Korea

    Nan Hee Kim

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  1. Duong Duc Pham
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Correspondence to Chol Shin or Chae Hun Leem.

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Pham, D.D., Lee, S.K., Shin, C. et al. Reply to readers’ comment on “Body weight difference between dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis attenuates the equivalence of body composition assessment”. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 809–810 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0410-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0410-4

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