Normal Reference Plots for the Bioelectrical Impedance Vector in Healthy Korean Adults

Accurate volume measurement is important in the management of patients with congestive heart failure or renal insufficiency. A bioimpedance analyser can estimate total body water in litres and has been widely used in clinical practice due to its non-invasiveness and ease of results interpretation. To change impedance data to volumetric data, bioimpedance analysers use equations derived from data from healthy subjects, which may not apply to patients with other conditions. Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) was developed to overcome the dependence on those equations by constructing vector plots using raw impedance data. BIVA requires normal reference plots for the proper interpretation of individual vectors. The aim of this study was to construct normal reference vector plots of bioelectrical impedance for Koreans.

Bioelectrical impedance measurements were collected from apparently healthy subjects screened according to a comprehensive physical examination and medical history performed by trained physicians. Reference vector contours were plotted on the RXc graph using the probability density function of the bivariate normal distribution. We further compared them with those of other ethnic groups.

A total of 242 healthy subjects aged 22 to 83 were recruited (137 men and 105 women) between December 2015 and November 2016. The centers of the tolerance ellipses were 306.3 Ω/m and 34.9 Ω/m for men and 425.6 Ω/m and 39.7 Ω/m for women. The ellipses were wider for women than for men. The confidence ellipses for Koreans were located between those for Americans and Spaniards without overlap for both genders.

This study presented gender-specific normal reference BIVA plots and corresponding tolerance and confidence ellipses on the RXc graph, which is important for the interpretation of BIA-reported volume status in patients with congestive heart failure or renal insufficiency. There were noticeable differences in reference ellipses with regard to gender and ethnic groups.