The long-term objective is to quickly and accurately measure infant volume in air so that the deduced rate of increase in lean-body mass can be correlated with the infant diet. Such routine measurements of body density should result in improving diet programs that reduce infant hospital confinement and mortality rate. Known devices for the measurement of infant body volume in air are subject to inaccuracies and long measurement times because the infants presence tends to increase the temperature and humidity. Air displacement and simple Helmholtz resonator schemes are sensitive to such changes. The new device uses acoustic resonance principles that are expected to eliminate problems related to temperature and humidity changes. It is expected that very accurate measurements can be made in much less than a minute, with inexpensive instrumentation that reads out the body-volume, density and estimated lean-body mass. The device should be inexpensive to manufacture, making it a highly desirable and, eventually, required product at every hospital and clinic.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:A device capable of reliable and fast measurement of infant body volume should rapidly become standard equipment in infant nurseries. Routine measuring of body density is expected to have a major influence on future infant nutritional programs. A reduction in the time of confinement and in mortality rates is anticipated.National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
