Abstract
In order to elucidate the best way to measure total or local body fat, we outlined the recent literatures and pointed out the problems involved in each method. We further reported the findings on the applicability of the methods to hemiplegic patients after stroke and to paraplegic patients with spinal cord injury. The method of choice to measure body fat of healthy subjects is at present considered hydrodensitometry. Disabled subjects may exhibit different body composition from healthy subjects, possibly showing characteristic composition which mirrors the nature of disability. Further studies are therefore needed to develop a formula to calculate body density of disabled subjects, and body composition of disabled subjects remained to be elucidated.
