Determination of upper arm muscle and fat areas using electrical impedance measurements.

An electrical impedance technique is described which enables the cross-sectional areas of fat and muscle in the upper arm to be recorded. By making comparisons with measurements obtained using the x-ray technique of computerised tomography (CT) scanning it is shown that fat can be determined to a mean accuracy of 2.3 cm2 and muscle to a mean accuracy of 1.5 mm2. These results are more accurate than a parallel set of measurements made using the traditional anthropometric technique.