One of the most common diagnostic tests is ultrasound. A non-invasive technique, which uses sound waves to produce images of the interior structures of the body.
In addition to being an essential element for, for example, pregnancy monitoring, they have multiple applications, such as:
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Determine blood flow
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evaluate the
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Detect nodules in the breasts
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Determine the inflammation of a knee….
But in addition to all this, a new diagnostic use of this technique is now emerging, it is the so-called nutritional ultrasound.
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It is an inexpensive, portable and non-invasive test that uses ultrasound to assess the body composition of the organism.
He doctor José Manuel García Almeidamember of highlights:
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“The evolution experienced by nutritional ultrasound, together with bioimpedance, in all areas of endocrinology and nutrition, since there was no technique for clinical use to assess body composition”
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“In addition, other reference techniques such as CT or DEXA, are far removed from normal clinical practice.”
What is nutritional ultrasound used for?
As Dr. García Almeida explains:
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“Specialists take care of dealing with metabolic pathology from the point of view of malnutrition, obesity, diabetes, etc., and in all these areas it is necessary to have composition and function data.”
Hence the importance of this procedure, which:
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“It allows the evaluation of body compartments, such as adipose, muscle, connective, vascular, bone tissue, etc., with the angle of vision of ultrasound.”
In this way, nutritional ultrasound “allows us to evaluate body composition from a clinical point of view in terms of muscle mass focused on the assessment of the rectus femoris of the quadriceps, which is a muscle that is related to the activities of daily life. , and on the other hand, the evaluation of fat, its and subcutaneous cell tissue with its superficial and deep layers, as well as the evaluation of abdominal, omental, etc. preperitoneal fat.”
The endocrinologist highlights the usefulness of nutritional ultrasound:
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“It is indicated for a very broad spectrum of patients with metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, although it has mainly been developed in patients with malnutrition.”
But, in addition, it can also be applied to other pathologies such as:
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heart failure
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kidney failure
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As well as different diseases.
The endocrinologist points out that it is a specific and complementary test of endocrinology and nutrition that has required standardization and is being validated through studies at the national level.
A field yet to be explored
Nutrition specialists point out that nutritional ultrasound is a complementary technique that is part of a set of techniques called morphofunctional assessment.
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Through them, specialists in endocrinology and nutrition can assess body composition and function and delve into quantitative and qualitative analysis to provide diagnostic and prognostic value in clinical situations of over and undernutrition such as obesity, metabolic disease and malnutrition.
On the other hand, “the morphofunctional assessment is more complex because it also includes intake records, quality of life analysis, adherence to treatment and analytical data, so it is a global, holistic vision that incorporates all the assessment from the point of view from a morphological and functional point of view of malnutrition”, highlights the endocrinologist.
“The endocrinologist is the specialist who is leading this field of development and is establishing normal patterns and their application in different pathologies,” says Dr. García Almeida.
For this, the doctor assures that it is essential to establish standardized training plans in high-quality nutritional ultrasound “to increase the use of these techniques by specialists in endocrinology and nutrition, in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients ”.
Finally, García Almeida points out that the scientific evidence is limited and future projects in this field must include the design of population studies on different pathologies that allow obtaining reference values and cut-off points to be able to individually interpret the results of each patient. .
“More prospective studies are needed to evaluate response times and describe any clinically significant changes in all these parameters,” the endocrinologist points out.