The extracellular fluid includes various liquids. Pre-dialysis patients who were considered clinically overhydrated showed higher ECF/ICF ratios than healthy controls with comparable nutrition and training status.Ĭonclusion: For dry weight assessment by use of bioimpedance analysis it is essential to account for the individual nutrition and training status of each patient. Extracellular fluids (ECFs) surround all the cells in the body. The lower panel depicts the relationship between extracellular and intracellular compartment (mainly intracellular fluid losses) in a child with dehydration.

However, the proportion of ECF is much greater than that of ICF in preterm infants and reaches 60 of TBW at term. It bathes and surrounds the cells of the body, and provides a means of delivering materials to the cells, intercellular communication, and removal of metabolic waste. After establishing this correlation for healthy individuals, the ECF/ICF ratio of chronic hemodialysis patients (n=31, age 31–82 y) was measured and compared to the curve of the healthy population. Intracellular fluid (ICF) represents about two thirds of the TBW, which is equivalent to 30 to 40 of total body weight. The intercellular fluid is the main component of the extracellular fluid (other components are plasma and transcellular fluid). Hereby the deviation of bioimpedance based TBW and Watson-TBW is affected by the individual nutrition and training status. We evaluated the impact of a negative balance for sodium (Na) and potassium (K) salts on the intracellular fluid (ICF) volume, emphasizing the role of anions. ECF/ICF was variable, but correlated with the deviation of measured TBW from TBW according to the Watson equation. In this chapter and in the following chapters on the kidneys, we discuss the overall regulation of body fluid volume, constituents of the extracellular fluid. A method of whole body bioimpedance (WBIA) based dry weight estimation for dialysis patients is shown, which accounts for the individual nutrition and training status of each patient.Įxtracellular and intracellular fluid volumes (ECF and ICF) of healthy controls (n=34, age 25–44 y) were measured with a multifrequency WBIA analyzer (4200, XITRON Technologies Inc.). Bioimpedance analysis is a potential technique to measure fluid distributions in the body. Cells enzymatically dispersed from fetal rat calvaria were analyzed for sodium and potassium content and intracellular fluid space (ICF).