Importantly, DXA measures lean body mass, which includes skeletal muscle as well as internal organs such as liver and spleen that may be confounding during critical illness.
We found no significant interaction between any of the anthropometric measures, lean body mass and age, gender, race, diabetes or hypertension.
Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) exploits the difference in the attenuation of tissue and bone at different X-ray energies to measure lean body mass (LBM), fat mass (FM) and bone mineral mass (BMM) [41], which can be extrapolated to the whole body (Fig. 1).
We used indirect calorimetry to measure REE and dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to measure lean body mass (LBM) in 116 VLBW and in 118 term-born control individuals (mean age: 22.5 years, SD 2.2) participating in a cohort study.
Measuring lean body mass by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is a good index for the quantity and quality of skeletal muscles (Hansen et al., 1999).
Outcome measures Primary: lean body mass assessed with deuterium dilution, grip strength measured with dynamometers, and physical activity measured with accelerometer and heart rate monitors.
This is the first study to our knowledge to associate serum sodium with practical, broadly used and well-validated anthropometric measures of lean body mass.
Total body potassium: Total body K (TBK), a measure of lean body mass, was measured using a NE8108 shadow shield whole-body monitor (Nuclear Enterprises Ltd ,Edinburgh, UK) over 40 min.
On arrival, body weight, height and waist circumference were measured and lean body mass was determined by electrical bioimpedance (Hydra ECF/ICF, Xitron Technologies, San Diego, CA).
Meat intake was associated with greater increase in middle upper arm muscle area (a measure of lean body mass) in Kenyan children [7] suggesting that the improved scores in visual spatial skills in this study might be mediated by improved nutrition.
However, the measure of lean body mass is difficult with the usual methods (skinfold) in obese subjects and should be determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) [ 80].
