Paediatric Body Composition Measurement Techniques in Morbidly Obese Patients

Obesity is associated with adverse health outcomes both in paediatric and in adult age. There is a need to adopt consistent methods of measuring body composition in order to detect modifiable risk factors and consequences. Nutritional assessment based on body composition in early age can guide optimal nutrition and nutritional management during growth. On the other hand, body composition is a predictor of clinical outcome as well as a useful task either in prevention or in treatment at single and population level.Aim of this chapter is to review the currently available methods for body composition assessment with particular attention to methods useful and available for overweight and obese subjects. Obesity is challenging the body composition measurements due to altered body hydration, difficult to partitioning fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM) and because several methods have less accuracy and precision in this population. Measurements for quantifying total body and regional adiposity and for mapping adipose tissue distribution to evaluate metabolic risk factors both in children and in adults are discussed.We summarised the advantages and disadvantages of the body composition measurement methods discussed in this chapter having the opportunity that measurements chosen will provide a simple framework to aid decision-making in day-by-day clinical practice.