Assessment of body composition with bioelectrical impedance analysis in pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum before and after treatment

Abstract

More than half of pregnant women suffer from nausea and vomiting, in 0.5–1% of the pregnant women, if nausea and vomiting are severe and persistent, condition can progress to hyperemesis. We evaluated the fluid volume parameters in pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum, before and after treatment using the bioelectrical impedance vectors. A total of 70 pregnant women who had weight loss exceeding 5% of pre-pregnancy body weight were recruited for the study in the first trimester. The measurement of multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis parameters was performed on the day of hospitalisation before any treatment and after treatment at 24 h and 72 h with the same procedure. Total body water, extracellular water, intracellular water, and fat-free mass index increased after treatment at 24 h (P < 0.01). Also, the mean pregnancy-unique quantification of emesis and nausea score was significantly lower after treatment (11.3 ± 2.1 at enrolment, 5.1 ± 1.4 at 24 h and 4.3 ± 1.1 at 72 h) (P < 0.01), which correlated with the patients’ clinical improvement and changes in hydration. In pregnant women with moderate-to-severe hyperemesis gravidarum, significant body composition changes occur and fluid replacement therapy performed during a short period of time, such as 24 h, provides improvement in body composition.

Keywords::

• First trimester
• hyperemesis gravidarum
• multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.