Infant body composition assessment in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using air displacement plethysmography: strategies for implementation into clinical workflow
Body composition is a sensitive marker of infants’ intra- and extrauterine growth quality that can influence short- and long-term outcomes; including retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), metabolic health, cardiovascular and neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Low body fat percentage at birth in small and appropriate for gestational age infants is a marker of undernutrition and is associated with an increased risk for neonatal morbidities. Similarly, neonatal adiposity can help identify the risk for childhood overweight and obesity leading to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
Furthermore, prenatal factors including maternal diet and physical activity do affect offspring's fat accretion starting as early as the intrauterine life and continuing postnatally which can be reflected in neonatal adiposity.
Tracking body composition of term and preterm infants can provide the NICU team with valuable information to drive changes in nutritional management and help optimize infants’ growth and clinical outcomes.
ADP (Air Displacement Plethysmography) is one of the more accurate and reliable methods for body composition assessment in preterm infants. The PEA POD ADP unit manufactured by COSMED is the only device for non-invasive body composition measurement in infants, via ADP.
The purpose of this article is to share experience with creating, adapting, and implementing procedures for measuring body composition in different NICU settings, and how to incorporate body composition information into routine clinical care.
Article details:
- Title: Infant body composition assessment in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using air displacement plethysmography: strategies for implementation into clinical workflow.
- Authors: Alja'nini Z, McNelis KM, Viswanathan S, Goddard GR, Merlino-Barr S, Collin M, Groh-Wargo S.
- Published in: Clinical Nutrition ESPEN - Epub 2021 Apr 24. PMID: 34024517
- Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnesp.2021.04.014
