Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is an easy-to-use, non-invasive and reproducible technique to evaluate changes in body composition and nutritional status. Phase angle, determined by BIA, has been validated for the assessment of body composition and nutritional status in a variety of patient populations including cancer patients.
The PrognostiCheck® device measures Phase Angle. Here is an abstarct from a study which investigated the prognostic role of phase angle in advanced pancreatic cancer.
The study investigated the prognostic role of phase angle in advanced pancreatic cancer. We evaluated a case series of fifty-eight stage IV pancreatic cancer patients treated at Cancer Treatment Centers of Americaw at Midwestern Regional Medical Center (Zion, IL, USA) between January 2000 and July 2003. BIA was conducted on all patients using a bioelectrical impedance analyser that operated at 50 kHz. The phase angle was calculated as capacitance (Xc)/resistance (R) and expressed in degrees. The Kaplan– Meier method was used to calculate survival. Cox proportional hazard models were constructed to evaluate the prognostic effect of phase angle independent of other clinical and nutritional variables. The correlations between phase angle and traditional nutritional measures were evaluated using Pearson and Spearman coefficients. Patients with phase angle ,5·08 had a median survival time of 6·3 (95 % CI 3·5, 9·2) months (n 29), while those with phase angle .5·08 had a median survival time of 10·2 (95 % CI 9·6, 10·8) months (n 29); this difference was statistically significant (P1⁄4 0·02)
In summary, this study has demonstrated the prognostic significance of the phase angle in advanced pancreatic cancer.
