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VALIDITY OF ULTRASOUND FOR BODY COMPOSITION MEASUREMENT

Abstract

S. Dexter, K. Christison, C. Dumke, FACSM

University of Montana, Missoula, MT

The use of ultrasound has become a popular method to evaluate body composition as it claims to remove technician errors that can often occur in skinfold assessments. PURPOSE: To evaluate the validity of using ultrasound (ULTRA) to determine body composition compared to hydrostatic weighing (HW) and skinfold (SK) techniques. METHODS: Twenty two subjects (18 male, 6 female, 22.1 ± 0.6 yrs, 78.9 ± 3.5 kg, 177.7 ± 2.0 cm) underwent body composition analysis using SK, ULTRA, and HW in the same session while being a minimum of 4 hours fasted. Both SK and ULTRA assessments were taken using the 3-site Jackson and Pollock method for males (chest, abdomen, and thigh) and a 4-site Jackson, Pollock, and Wade analysis for females (tricep, suprailiac, abdomen, thigh). HW was measured using a hydrostatic weighing tank with three force transducers. Residual volume was estimated from the subject's height, age, and weight. Subjects were submerged and weighed repeatedly until 3 consistent measurements were recorded within 0.1 kg. Body fat percentage (BF), fat mass (FM), and fat free mass (FFM) were recorded. Data was analyzed using paired sample t-tests and a one-way ANOVA. Data is presented as mean ± SEM. RESULTS: Across the measurement modalities, no significant differences were seen in BF (13.9 ± 1.2 % ULTRA, 13.4 ± 1.3 % SK, 12.3 ± 0.7 % HW, p =0.57), FM (10.7 ± 0.9 kg ULTRA, 10.3 ± 0.9 kg SK, 9.7 ± 0.7 kg HW, p = 0.75), and FFM (68.2 ± 3.5 kg ULTRA, 68.6 ± 3.5 kg SK, 69.2 ± 3.1 kg HW, p = 0.98). There was a significant difference in subcutaneous skinfold thickness measured between SK and ULTRA (p < 0.009). Since ULTRA measures one subcutaneous fat layer while SK measures two, a ratio factor was determined at each site (1.49 ± 0.08 abdomen, 2.26 ± 0.09 thigh, 1.69 ± 0.08 chest, 1.90 ± 0.19 tricep, 2.07 ± 0.16 suprailiac). CONCLUSION: Based on these results, ULTRA appears to be a valid measure compared to SK and HW in accurately assessing body composition. However, the assumption of a doubling of the subcutaneous fat layer is not consistent across the anatomical sites. It remains unclear how ULTRA accounts for this variance in their proprietary algorithm.

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