Method and apparatus for measuring body fat
First Claim
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1. A method of measuring impedance of a patient'"'"'s body comprising the steps of:
- connecting a plurality of reference resistors each having a known resistance in series with said patient'"'"'s body;
supplying an electric current into a current path through said plurality of reference resistors and said patient'"'"'s body;
measuring voltage drops across any of said reference resistors and/or measuring voltage drops across any groups of adjacent said reference resistors, and measuring a voltage drop due to said patient'"'"'s body by momentarily and successively switching over a voltage drop measuring device for each of said voltage drops;
obtaining a correlation formula between said known resistances of said reference resistors and impedance of said patient'"'"'s body, based on measured values of said voltage drops; and
determining the impedance of said patient'"'"'s body by using the measured value of the voltage drop due to said patient'"'"'s body and said obtained correlation formula.
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Abstract
A body fat measuring apparatus for measuring body fat in a patient'"'"'s body comprises apparatus for simultaneously measuring an impedance between the patient'"'"'s feet, and for measuring the patient'"'"'s height and the patient'"'"'s weight, and a calculator for calculating body fat from the measured impedance value, height and weight. The calculator estimates body density using a formula having a correction term either for increasing the body density upon increase of the impedance compared to the original impedance or a correction term for decreasing the body density upon increase of the weight with respect to the original weight.
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Citations
2 Claims
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1. A method of measuring impedance of a patient'"'"'s body comprising the steps of:
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connecting a plurality of reference resistors each having a known resistance in series with said patient'"'"'s body; supplying an electric current into a current path through said plurality of reference resistors and said patient'"'"'s body; measuring voltage drops across any of said reference resistors and/or measuring voltage drops across any groups of adjacent said reference resistors, and measuring a voltage drop due to said patient'"'"'s body by momentarily and successively switching over a voltage drop measuring device for each of said voltage drops; obtaining a correlation formula between said known resistances of said reference resistors and impedance of said patient'"'"'s body, based on measured values of said voltage drops; and determining the impedance of said patient'"'"'s body by using the measured value of the voltage drop due to said patient'"'"'s body and said obtained correlation formula.
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2. An apparatus for measuring impedance of a patient'"'"'s body comprising a pair of input electrodes and a pair of output electrodes adapted to contact with spaced-apart portions of said patient'"'"'s body;
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a plurality of reference resistors each having a known resistance connected in series with said input electrodes; means for supplying an electric current into a current path through said plurality of reference resistors, said input electrodes and said portions of the patient'"'"'s body; voltage drop measuring means; switching means for momentarily and successively switching over said voltage drop measuring means across any of said reference resistors and/or across any groups of adjacent said reference resistors, and across said pair of output electrodes to measure voltage drops across the said reference resistors and/or voltage drops across the groups of said reference resistors, and a voltage drop due to said patient'"'"'s body when said current supplying means supplies an electric current into said current path; and processing means for obtaining a correlation formula between said resistances of said reference resistors and impedance of patient'"'"'s body on the basis of values of said voltage drops measured by said voltage drop measuring means and determining the impedance of said patient'"'"'s body by using the measured value of the voltage drop due to said patient'"'"'s body and said obtained correlation formula.
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Specification