Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology (CEOG) is published by IMR Press from Volume 47 Issue 1 (2020). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with S.O.G.
Potential use of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis in the assessment of edema in pregnancy
Objective: To evaluate the validity of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) in the assessment of edema in pregnancy. Methods: A prospective study of healthy women identified during the first trimester of pregnancy. From a pool of 200 eligible volunteers, BIA was conducted on 90 women during the rest of pregnancy and postpartum period. Results: The values for bioelectrial impedance in normal pregnant women decreased gradually in the course of pregnancy, whereas a more remarkable decrease in the values was noted in eight patients who developed edema. The bioelectrical impedance (Bl) changes correlated closely with body weight changes. There was a strong relation between bioelectrical impedance values and the degree of edema. The precedent decrease of the values before the onset of edema was noted in seven of the eight patients with edema. Conclusion: BIA can be a useful and practical method for the early detection and quantitative assessment of edema in pregnant women.