Abstract
[Purpose] This study investigated the reliability of lean mass, body fat and body fat ratio as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). [Subjects] The subjects were 10 elderly hemiplegic stroke patients (5 males, 5 females, aged 78+/-9 years) in long-term care. [Methods] With repeated measurements on the non-hemiplegic and hemiplegic sides, the examiners' reliability was investigated with the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). We also investigated the difference between the non-hemiplegic and hemiplegic sides with the t test, coefficient of variance (CV) and the Bland-Altman Plot (BA Plot). [Results] ICC was over 0.9, showing high reliability. With the t test, significant differences were found between the non-hemiplegic and hemiplegic sides in 6 cases, whereas no differences were found with CV. The BA Plot showed a tendency to err in cases with low body fat ratios. [Conclusion] We consider that the accuracy of measurement was the same on the non-hemiplegic and hemiplegic sides, and the error was small.
