Negative effects of obesity analyzed through bioimpedance, indirect calorimetry, the sympathovagal index and the orthoclinostatic test.

Early analysis of the negative effects of obesity is important to prevent the development of chronic diseases related to this condition. There is a need to monitor these effects through simple instrumentation that measures fat-free mass (FFM) catabolism. Obesity leads to a decrease in the FFM energy expenditure and to an increase in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Thus, the measurement of FFM dynamic catabolism can provide information regarding the effects of obesity. The hypothesis is that this increased ANS activity produces an increase of energy expenditure of carbohydrates and fats when the subjects are under stress; in this case after an 8-hour fast and while they are undergoing an orthoclinostatic test. A pilot study was conducted on 29 volunteers, 16 women and 13 men. The results show significant statistical differences (p<0.1) in fat and carbohydrate utilization during the orthoclinostatic tests: A move from the clinostatic to the orthostatic positions produced the following: Fat metabolism varied from 97.2 to 105.9 gr/day of fat for women and 24.9 to 35.7 gr/day of fat for men; carbohydrate metabolism changed from 38 to 39 gr/day for women and 239 to 277 gr/day for men; FFM averages were 47 Kg for women and 57.6 Kg for men; changes in the sympathovagal index (SVI) averages were 0.4 to 1.8 for women and 0.8 to 2.7 for men. The conclusions show that the methodology's sensitivity is such that gender differences can be used as a model to prove FFM metabolic differences. We believe that further studies will lead to the development of a robust methodology for the early detection of the negative effects of obesity.

Method to observe hemodynamic and metabolic changes during hemodiafiltration therapy with exercise.

Intradyalitic exercise programas are important to improve patient's hemodynamic stability. Blood pressure and metabolic changes are correlated when heat accumulation is due to increment of the body core temperature (+1.0 °C). However, increase in temperature could be controlled by lowering dialysate's temperature using two main modalities techniques (isothermic and thermoneural) with different patient's thermal balance consequences, not yet well studied. In this work, a new method to observe the main physiological parameters (hearth rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, BTM dialysate temperature control and substrate utilization by indirect calorimtery) which are involved in hemodiafitration (HDF), are displayd. An experiment was carried out in a group of 5 patients waiting kidney transplant. In each patient, EE was assessed as well as the HRV during isothermic and thermoneutral modalities as a manner of cross and prospective study (a) at before therapy, (b) during therapy and (c) at the end of the HDF therapy. Power extraction was also measured by a BTM (Blood Temperature Monitor from Fresenius Inc), in order to determine how the dialysate temperature was controlled. The results showed important method's advantages which place the BTM performance as unstable control system with the possibility to produce undesirable HRV changes as the vagotonical response. However more patient cases are needed in order to identify the real advantage of this new method.

Active metabolic weight estimation using bioimpedance, indirect calorimetry and the clino-ortho maneuver.

The resting energy expenditure (REE) and substrate utilization are computed by indirect calorimetry technique (ICT). The REE represents 80-85% of the total energy expenditure (TEE) but only accounts for the 7% of the actual body weight (ABW). The TEE is produced by the organs plus muscles, whereas the REE accounts only for the main organs. An important problem comes up when the REE is computed throughout the fat free mass (FFM) computation or anthropometric measurements because they do not explain the tremendous catabolic variability by ICT when subjects show the same body composition. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a method to compute the metabolic active weight (MAW) as a new form that may help to understand the catabolic activity of the body composition. The premise was the clino-ortho maneuver can split the ABW in two parts: one in which the MAW reflects the FFM catabolism while the second part was not considered since there is not energy requirement in it. The experiment design studied 37 young volunteers undergoing the clino-ortho maneuver during fast and postprandial conditions. The results showed REE increments of 21% during phase I (fast), while in phase II (postprandial) only 14% was achieved in ortho-postprandial. Therefore, the computed MAWs were 65.5Kg and 58Kg, respectively, when the ABW average was 70 Kg and the FFM was 50 Kg. One first conclusion was that the 15.5 Kg of the MAW above the FFM could explain a catabolic equivalence which can be exclusively related to the fast-ortho position which can help to classify exclusively the dynamic over activity of the FFM.