Body composition by bioelectrical-impedance analysis compared with deuterium dilution and skinfold anthropometry in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Body composition is an important measure of nutritional status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We generated a regression model for bioelectrical impedance (BI) by using deuterium dilution (2H2O) as a reference method in 32 COPD patients, aged 63 +/- 9 y (mean +/- SD), in stable pulmonary and cardiac condition. Height squared divided by resistance (Ht2/Res) correlated well with total body water (TBW) as measured by 2H2O (r = 0.93, P less than 0.001, SEE = 1.9 L). The best-fitting regression equation to predict TBW comprised Ht2/Res and body weight (r2 = 0.89, SEE = 1.8 L, P less than 0.001). BI-predicted TBW was used to estimate BI-fat-free mass (FFM) that was compared with skinfold-thickness-based FFM predictions (Anthr-FFM). Relative to BI-FFM a significant overestimation of 4.4 +/- 0.8 kg was found by Anthr-FFM. Our results suggest that BI is a useful measure of body composition in patients with severe COPD.