Measurement of body composition: applications in hormone research

Measurements of body composition are fundamental to the diagnosis and management of a number of diseases. However, these measurements must be appropriate and accurate. Accuracy can now be achieved, but at the expense of invasiveness (mainly radiation) and cost. Some methods for measuring body composition, such as bioimpedance analysis, are inexpensive, simple, harmless and infinitely repeatable. The remaining methods fall within a scale of increasing discriminating power and increasing cost/risk/difficulty. In this review, a number of methods of measuring body composition are discussed. Both traditional and new methods are included, which vary in ease of use, invasiveness and cost. The choice of technique depends on the needs of a particular study.