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Body composition in spinal cord injury.
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
|April 1, 1985
Summary
Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients show reduced body water, fat, and protein. However, these components as a percentage of body weight remain unchanged, indicating weight loss is primarily from water, fat, and protein, not bone mineral.
Area of Science:
- Physiology
- Biomedical Science
- Rehabilitation Medicine
Background:
- Spinal cord injury (SCI) significantly alters body composition.
- Understanding these changes is crucial for patient management and rehabilitation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate body composition differences between SCI patients and healthy controls.
- To determine the primary contributors to weight loss following SCI.
Main Methods:
- Assessed body composition (water, fat, protein, mineral) in 45 SCI patients and 12 controls.
- Analyzed absolute and relative (percentage of body weight) component amounts.
Main Results:
- SCI patients had lower absolute amounts of water, fat, and protein compared to controls.
- Relative amounts of water, fat, and protein were similar between groups.
- Bone mineral constituted a higher percentage of gross body weight in SCI patients.
Conclusions:
- Weight loss post-SCI is mainly due to reductions in water, fat, and protein.
- Despite early calcium loss, bone mineral percentage increases due to greater loss of other components.