Effect of body orientation and joint movement on local bioimpedance measurements

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if body orientation, skin treatment, joint angle, and shoulder arch movements affect localized bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) measurement. Nowadays, there are various wearable and portable impedance measurement tools in different shapes and sizes. Therefore, the body position and orientation of the subject during measurement may be of great importance for the comparability of the results. Ultrasound machine was used to measure the thickness of the skin layers and then bioimpedance measurements were performed for ten young men (age=23 ± 5) at room temperature (22°C) for different body orientations, skin treatments, joint angle, and shoulder arch movements. The results were analyzed using statistical methods and graphical presentation using Python and MatLab. Our observations indicate that there is a significant difference between standing straight up, supine and sitting positions. The results show that there is a significant difference between the two skin treatments (alcohol vs tape stripping). Moreover, joint angle and shoulder arch movements also have an impact on the impedance data. Therefore, to be able to control these factors can potentially improve the quality and comparability of the measured impedance data.