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Hindi Research Article
Circumferential versus Hand-held Laser Scanner Method for the Evaluation of Lower Limb Volumes in Normal-weight and Obese Subjects
Nicola Cau1*, Stefano Corna2, Valentina Aspesi2, Francesco Postiglione2, Manuela Galli1,3, Elena Tacchini2, Luisa Brugliera2, Veronica Cimolin1 and Paolo Capodaglio21Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
2Rehabilitation Unit and Research Lab in Biomechanics and Rehabilitation, S Giuseppe Hospital, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Piancavallo (VB), Italy
3IRCCS “San Raffaele Pisana”, Tosinvest Sanità, Roma, Italy
- *Corresponding Author:
- Nicola Cau
Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering
Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
Tel: +39 02 23993359
Fax: +39 02 23993360
E-mail: nicola.cau@polimi.it
Received date: July 19, 2016; Accepted date: July 30, 2016; Published date: August 10, 2016
Citation: Cau N, Corna S, Aspesi V, Postiglione F, Galli M, et al. (2016) Circumferential versus Hand-held Laser Scanner Method for the Evaluation of Lower Limb Volumes in Normal-weight and Obese Subjects. J Nov Physiother 6:303. doi:10.4172/2165-7025.1000303
Copyright: © 2016 Cau N, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Circumferential measurement (CM) for lower limbs volume computation is a simple and accurate method; however, its reliability depends on the operator’s skills. Recent studies support the use of a new technique for an accurate and reliable measurement of body segments based on 3D laser scanner method (LS3D). The detection of the limb volume in obese patients can be tricky, due to the excess of masses that may hamper the identification of anatomical landmarks. In this study, we wanted to compare CM and LS3D in terms of circumferential measures and volumes of lower limbs in normal-weight and in obese subjects. We measured lower limb volumes in 21 female obese and in 11 female healthy subjects with both methods. Our data show statistically significant differences in terms of volume as detected by CM and LS3D. In the comparison between methods, the control group had showed a higher number of parameters statistically different in comparison with the obese. The reason is related to the shape of the limb: whereas in lean subjects the leg shape is anatomically defined, in obese subjects the presence of fat layers masks the anatomical landmarks with the leg shape closely resembling a cone figure. In this latter case, the Frustum formula seems to better approximate the volume. LS3D presents with the advantage of detecting gibbousness and uneven limb shapes, i.e. in patients lymphedema, which can be overlooked by the Frustum formula. Our data suggest that LS3D may represent a suitable tool for clinical applications, especially for pre-post evaluations.
