Body composition is essential for understanding the patient’s physiological makeup and guiding treatment to target specific areas for improvement in physical therapy programs. InBody devices are non-invasive and convenient, making it the ideal tool to implement into rehabilitation practices. The InBody test provides comprehensive results that can be used to educate and engage patients as well as track improvements throughout the course of physical therapy treatment.
In less than 60 seconds, the InBody Test provides easy-to-understand, accurate and objective measurements to evaluate the patient’s starting point and monitor progress during rehabilitation. Physical therapists can use the InBody to:
“The preservation of the skeletal muscle mass plays an important role in the rehabilitation of muscle and tendon damage.”
“In designing the current study, MF-BIA was selected as an inexpensive, efficient means of estimating body composition. Use of this technology allows convenience for other researchers to reproduce results and clinicians to use this office-based technology to monitor patient’s body composition as well as response to diet and exercise therapy.s.”
“As a conclusion, a 12-week rehabilitation program reduced the shoulder pain, improved the body composition and enhanced the isokinetic shoulder internal/external rotators in EG with impingement symptoms..”
Current in-clinic methods of measuring the composition of an injured body segment are indirect while more medically advanced methods limit testing frequency.InBody provides a cost-effective, comprehensive and timely measurement of segmental lean mass, which can be used to identify areas of weakness due to injury or recent surgery and tailor rehabilitation programs to improve functional status.
During the rehabilitation phase after an injury or surgery, increased sedentary behavior and/or immobilization causes loss of muscle in the injured or operated region. By evaluating lean mass in each segment of the arms, legs, and trunk separately, a physical therapist can gather baseline information on lean mass in the segments with restricted mobility. This provides beneficial information for the identification of potential imbalances related to muscle loss post-injury/surgery. By assessing each segment separately, regions of low lean mass development can be targeted and improved. By identifying these imbalances related to immobility and/or overcompensation, functional fitness and mobility can be increased, helping the therapist reduce the risk of future reinjury.
Understanding segmental lean distribution for a patient can help the therapist guide patients back to baseline more effectively. The information from the InBody test can help by providing further insight into a patient’s body composition with the opportunity to provide further analysis of long-term health risks associated with body composition imbalances. Using this information, therapists can set tailored exercise interventions for improving overall health and health risks.
Following surgery or injury, inflammation can occur with little to no visible symptoms. Objective and precise measures of body water can detect water retention and inflammation to help guide rehabilitation treatment.
InBody effectively distinguishes water in the intracellular (ICW; within the tissues) and extracellular (ECW; within the blood and interstitial fluids) water compartments that comprise total body water. The Edema Index, based on the ration between ECW and TBW (ECW/TBW), can be used to detect fluid imbalances resulting from inflammation due to injury or recovery after surgery.
By assessing fluid balance in the body and by specific segment, inflammation can be identified and used to guide treatment options and intensity to reduce the risk of re-injury or post-surgery complications. These measures are provided for the whole body as well as for each body segment and can be used to identify where fluid imbalances may be occurring for a more precise analysis and an earlier indication of inflammation and recovery. Tracking these values back to normal will aid the therapist by providing additional proof of the success of their programs.
Patient progress is tracked through subjective measurement screenings and patient-reported outcomes, making it harder to track progress precisely and objectively. Objective measures of weight, skeletal muscle mass, percent body fat, and ECW/TBW allow progress in body composition and inflammation to be recorded and tracked throughout a rehabilitation program.
InBody’s Body Composition History section allows patients and physical therapists to monitor progress over the course of physical therapy programs. Improvements can be tracked to assess to ensure rehabilitation programs are improving the client’s musculature, body composition, and functionality. Visualization of progress keeps patients motivated and engaged in their treatment plan. Long-term monitoring of ECW/TBW can track decreases in inflammation following the surgery or injury as well as monitor for increases that may be indicative of irritation or overtraining. Negative trends can be identified more effectively and addressed to improve the patient’s long-term health, functionality, and mobility.
Once patients complete rehabilitation and return to their normal routines many begin to reduce physical activity or return to sedentary behavior. This unhealthy habit combined with poor dietary choices increases risk of re-injury and promotes disease. In-depth body composition analysis and easy to interpret results sheets allows for client’s to engage in deeper conversations with their physical therapists regarding their health status and risk for future injury/disease. This can prompt additional services to help reduce these risks.
A large portion of clients suffer from an injury whereas the cause could have been prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle and being more active. By educating clients on body composition and its relation to long-term health, therapists can promote additional treatments/services and keep clients in their programs longer with a goal of long-term health improvement.
Obesity is a large contributor to stress on joints, pain, injury and in extreme cases surgery. By having an in-depth analysis of a patient’s muscle-fat balance physical therapists are able to break down to a client the importance of maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise. Maintaining a physical therapy program not only continues to improve patient outcomes from their initial injury/surgery, it also reduces risk of other health conditions or future injuries from occurring.
After injury or surgery, a patient’s physical activity level is severely reduced; proper nutrition intake is imperative to reduce weight gain and maintain functional health. Solution: Understanding a patient’s basal metabolic rate can guide nutritional programs, induce faster recovery, minimize fat gain and reduce health risk or postoperative complications.
Following surgery or injury, patients reduce their physical activity level. This increase in sedentary behavior combined with unhealthy eating habits increases risk of muscle loss and body fat increase, both associated with disease and health complications. By having a more precise calculation of the caloric needs of an individual, nutritional guidelines can be applied to minimize weight gain associated with injury or surgery.
Post-surgery, the body is recovering and needs proper nutrition to heal. Incorporating a nutritional program into rehabilitation therapy services can increase rate of recovery, reduce postoperative complications and provide patient’s the energy they require to maximize results from their physical therapy sessions.
DIRECT SEGMENTAL MEASUREMENT (DSM)Direct Segmental Measurement (DSM) measures water, muscle mass and fat mass in the five body segments: right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg and trunk. By measuring each segment of the body separately, InBody provides an in-depth analysis of the patient’s muscle-fat and fluid balance in each segment independently. Identifying the patient’s lean and fat distribution allows a better assessment of associated health risks while segmental ECW/TBW can be used to identify systemic or localized inflammation resulting from injury, underlying health conditions or surgical complications.
MULTIPLE FREQUENCIESInBody devices utilize multiple frequencies to measure body water more accurately than commonly-used methods such as weight changes or pitting edema scores. These high and low frequencies measure both intracellular and extracellular water, producing precise measures of each body water compartment. With accurate fluid measures, InBody can be used to identify fluid imbalances or water retention stemming from inflammation or injury as well as monitor changes resulting from exercise interventions and recovery.
8 POINT TACTILE ELECTRODESInBody uses an 8-Point Tactile Electrode system to ensure that measurements always start in the same place, test after test. This technology creates precise and reproducible results, ensuring that the results obtained are a direct outcome of clinical recommendations and interventions, rather than error.
NO EMPIRICAL ESTIMATIONSInBody does not rely on empirical estimations based on age, gender or ethnicity to predict results. With the high level of accuracy and precision achieved with the aforementioned technological advancements, InBody removes population-associated assumptions when determining body composition to ensure results are based solely on the individual, increasing sensitivity to the individual’s unique makeup of muscle and fat, enabling effective tracking of changes.
