Anthropometric approximation of body weight in unresponsive stroke patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Thrombolysis of acute ischaemic stroke is based strictly on body weight to ensure efficacy and to prevent bleeding complications. Many candidate stroke patients are unable to communicate their body weight, and there is often neither the means nor the time to weigh the patient. Instead, weight is estimated visually by the attending physician, but this is known to be inaccurate.

Methods

Based on a large general population sample of nearly 7000 subjects, we constructed approximation formulae for estimating body weight from simple anthropometric measurements (body height, and waist and hip circumference). These formulae were validated in a sample of 178 consecutive inpatients admitted to our stroke unit, and their accuracy was compared with the best visual

SUBMITTER: Lorenz MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2095625 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature