A Comparison of Two Segmental Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Methods With Whole-Body Analysis

Two different methods of attaching the current leads for segmental bioelectrical impedance analysis measurements were compared. The first method was leaving the current electrodes in place at the hand and foot for all measurements, while the second method involved moving the current electrodes to be adjacent to the voltage electrodes when measuring each segment. Each method was compared to a whole-body measurement performed at the same occasion as the segmental measurements. Slight deviation from the whole-body measurement was expected, as the electrode placements resulted in small gaps that were not measured between each of the arm, trunk, and leg segments. The second method, moving the current electrodes for each segment, was found to be the closer of the two methods for whole body measurements, with errors of 2% and 5.8% at R₀ and R_∞, respectively, while the first method had errors of 4.2% and 6% respectively.