Determination of changes in the basal metabolic rate and body composition of patients with chronic active and inactive hepatitis B infection using bioelectrical impedance analysis*

Aim: To examine changes in the basal metabolic rate and body composition of patients with chronic inactive and active hepatitis B (HBV) infection as measured using single frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and to investigate the convenience of this method for follow-up with these patients. Materials and methods: Twenty patients with chronic inactive HBV infection, 22 with chronic active HBV infection, and 43 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. Using single frequency BIA and basal metabolic rate (BMR), the resistance and body composition of all participants were measured. Results: A total of 85 subjects (31 female and 54 male) with a mean age of 35.1 ± 11.4 years were enrolled. Th ere was no signifi cant difference between the groups in terms of mean age, height, or body weight (P 0.05). The mean body mass index (BMI) of the participants was 26.55 kg/m². While the BMR was found to be lower, resistance was higher in patients in the inactive group (P 0.05 for both). The body fat index was higher in the inactive group than in the active group, but the difference was not statistically significant (P 0.05). A strong negative correlation was found between BMR and resistance, and the body fat index (rho = –0.804, P 0.01; rho = –0.337, P 0.01, respectively). Th ere was a positive correlation between BMR and BMI (rho = 0.408, P 0.05). There was no signifi cant difference between the groups BMI, phase angle, and other body components (P 0.05). Conclusion: This study suggests that single frequency BIA is less useful in the follow-up with the aforementioned group of patients.