Bioelectrical impedance analysis is the study of the electrical properties of biological material and its change over conductance and time. This includes humans, animals, fish, plants, vegetables, fruits and anything living which has the cell as the basis of life.

BIA studies cell health. BIA provides us information about nutrition, cellular sodium/potassium balance and thus the state of anergy vs. energy (Gerson), pre-cancerous states, defective nutrition, lymphedema, etc.

Electrical properties of cells and tissues have been described since 1871. The first breakthrough in electrocardiology was made by the Dutch scientist Willem Einthoven, who in 1903 developed series string galvanometers that he used to build the first EKG machine. Before Einthoven, scientists were aware that the heart produced electrical signals, but they had no way of recording them without attaching electrodes directly to the heart. The electrocardiogram uses electrodes on the surface of the body to measure the electrical activity of the heart.  It is possible to place electrodes on the body surface and measure cardiac potentials because the body acts as a volume conductor of the electrical currents generated by the heart. The conducting medium of the body's fluids extends continuously; it is three-dimensional and referred to as a volume conductor. Electrical conduction is throughout the body, is measureable in terms of volts and amperage, and shows capacitance (voltage storage) which is localized to cellular membranes and the skin. Whenever a current source is applied to the body via the skin, the action potential spreads throughout the body and can be meausred at any two points.

In the early 1900, Einthoven (the father of electrocardiography) postulated that the cardiac excitation could be viewed as a vector. • He drew an equilateral triangle with two vertices at two shoulders and one at the navel. • With the cardiac vector representing the spread of cardiac excitation inside the triangle, the potential difference measured between two vertices of the triangle (known as the limb leads), is proportional to the projection of the vector on each side of the triangle - aka -Einthoven's equilateral triangle.

The electrical properties of the body were further described for a wider range of frequencies on larger range of tissues, including those that were damaged or undergoing change after death. Thomasset conducted the original studies using electrical impedance measurements as an index of total body water (TBW), using two subcutaneously inserted needles. The first application of bioimpedance testing occured on Mount McKinley, Alaska in 1981. Dr. William Mills MD, an Admiral in the US Navy, initiated a study to assess the hydration status of soldiers in high altitude, cold weather environments. The results of BIA measurements compared to blood and urine analysis were very encouraging. Hoffer et al. and Nyboer first introduced the four-surface electrode BIA technique.

Bioelectrical impedance measurement A weak electric current is passed through the body and resistance/reactance is measured. The various tissues in mass receive the current which travels through them to affect the final measurement resulting in estimates of phase angle, fat, fat-free (muscle) mass, and intra- and extra-cellular water.

By the 1970s the foundations of BIA were established, including those that underpinned the relationships between the impedance and the body water content of the body. A variety of single frequency BIA analyzers then became commercially available, and by the 1990s, the market included several multi-frequency analyzers. In recent years technological improvements have made BIA a more reliable and therefore more acceptable way of measuring body composition.

The use of BIA as a bedside method has increased because the equipment is portable and safe, the procedure is simple and noninvasive, and the results are reproducible and rapidly obtained. More recently, segmental BIA has been developed to overcome inconsistencies between resistance (R) and body mass of the trunk for lung studies.

In order to be able to differentiate between the two components resistance and reactance from the measured total resistance, modern BIA devices have phase sensitive electronics. The principle of measurement is based upon the fact that the condensers in the alternating current circuit lead to a time delay, called phase angle, reflecting in a picture of cell health.

About BIA

The most popular and publicly well-known are the studies using the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a single parameter indicating the degree of obesity (or slimness). However it cannot tell anything about the body composition. This fact means that 180cm, 90kg sports man and 180cm, 90kg lazy man can have the same BMI. The BMI is the same but just at glance we can tell who is healthier. Because of that body composition is very important, with values of body composition it is easier to predict and treat diseases connected with obesity and illness.

BIA proper is the clinical assessment of tissue and fluid compartments in the human body. Simply explained, BIA measures the impedance or resistance of an electrical current as it travels through the body's water that is found in muscle and fat. A normal distribution of tissue and fluid in the body is associated with high immunological function and longevity. Healthy cells can store energy and have high phase angles whereas unhealthy cells have low phase angles. A body that stores energy easily has high reactance and a body that stores energy poorly has low reactance. Reactance is a measure of the cells' ability to store energy.

What is parallel capacitance

All living things are made of cells. Cells are membrane bound compartments filled with a concentrated solution of chemicals, nutrients, elements, and salts. Groups of cells perform specialized functions and are linked by an intricate communications system.

The cell membrane maintains an ion concentration ‘gradient’ between the intracellular (internal cell/cytoplasm) and extracellular (external) environment. This electromotive gradient [in pico Farads] known as Parallel Capacitance, is the electrical potential difference across the membrane that is essential to cell survival.

The Parallel Capacitance is responsible for efficient support transfer of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and elements in and out of the cell. The higher the capacitance, the more efficient the cellular metabolism.

Parallel capacitance is not affected by weight or body fat. It is a measure of cell membrane health and can change dramatically depending on disease or health. As cells take on nourishment and vitality progressing toward health, their parallel capacitance increases. Inversely, as cells lose their energy and vitality, their capacitance goes down.

A body builder, for example, would have a high parallel capacitance and low resistance, or more cell volume, because he is extremely muscular and fit. A malnourished AIDS patient would have a low parallel capacitance due to lower muscle density.

Increasing Capacitance

Any protocols and/or supplements that progress the body’s health will show an increased body capacitance. This is one of the great features of BIA, to prove what we're prescribing is actually going to the cell, not down the toilet! Inversely, any substances that decrease the capacitance need elimination for the dietary. The BIA instrument provides these data points. The more data points the greater ability to make an accurate hypothesis that can best assist the client.

Typically, as we get older, cells lose their natural ability to expand - and start to shrink, in part due to the loss of intra-cellular water as well as the loss of cellular Zeta Potential. Zeta-potential is the ability of a molecule to hold an electrical charge. The electric potential of a cell is its life force. When the Zeta Potential of a cell is increased, the cells become stronger and more active. If you practice nutrition, your bottom line is Zeta Potential.

When a cell’s electrical potential is reduced to zero the cell disintegrates, ferments, and either dies or mutates. When the electrical potential of a cell is reduced, progressive weakness and illness may occur. A person's electrical potential may be lowered by loss of blood or fluids, excessive emotional stress, accidents, lack of sleep, lingering infections, toxins, and an unbalanced diet. But more importantly, a person’s electric potential is dependent on zeta factors from the diet.

For example, when a person is detoxifying or going through a life change that can ultimately lead to a major shift in health and capacitance. These are some of the actions that will lower capacitance before a breakthrough [shift] that will raise it. Patterns and trends can be recorded by BIA analysis. Generally, a fair increase in capacitance takes weeks to months of strict diet and lifestyle change. We however, have discovered a miraculous Z-Factor nutrient complex that can shift and raise these values very quickly, within hours.

Parallel Capacitance

All living things are made of cells. Cells are membrane bound compartments filled with a concentrated solution of lipids, chemicals, nutrients, elements, and salts. Groups of cells perform specialized functions and are linked by an intricate communications system. The cell membrane maintains an ion concentration ‘gradient’ - zeta potential - between the intracellular (internal cell/cytoplasm) and extracellular (external) environment. This electromotive gradient [measured in pico Farads] known as Parallel Capacitance, is the electrical potential difference across the membrane that is essential to cell survival. The Parallel Capacitance is responsible for efficient support transfer of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and elements in and out of the cell. The higher the capacitance, the more efficient the cellular metabolism.

Parallel capacitance is not affected by weight or body fat. It is a measure of cell membrane health and can change dramatically depending on disease or health. As cells take on nourishment and vitality progressing toward health, their parallel capacitance increases. Inversely, as cells lose their energy and vitality, their capacitance goes down.
A body builder, for example, would have a high parallel capacitance and low resistance, or more cell volume, because he is extremely muscular and fit. A malnourished AIDS patient would have a low parallel capacitance due to lower muscle density.

Phase Angle

Phase angle is another indicator of cellular health and integrity. Usually, a phase angle of 6 or greater is desired for men and 5 or greater is desired for women. Research on humans has shown that the relationship between phase angle and cellular health is increasing and nearly linear. A low phase angle is consistent with an inability of cells to store energy and an indication of breakdown in the selective permeability of cellular membranes and a deficiency of Z-Factors. Low phase angles are associated with reduced survival times in patients with cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Patients with abnormally low and borderline phase angles have clearly reduced survival times. Phase angle is a marker of clinically relevant malnutrition.

Higher phase angles appear to be consistent large quantities of intact cell membranes and body cell mass. Cell membranes have a high lipid content of Omega-3 fatty acids and therefore this reading gives an indication of your cell lipid status. A high phase angle is consistent with large quantities of intact, healthy cell membranes and body cell mass.

Phase angle is good indicator of disease progression although it is not used to diagnose a specific disease. It may be thought of as a thermometer with a broad range of normal. It may also be used to monitor the practice of good health, which would include healthy diets, the use nutritional supplements and exercise. 

Parallel capacitance is somewhat like phase angle, whereas it is not effected by weight or body fat. It is a measure of cell membrane health in all living substances and can change dramatically depending on disease or good health. 

ECW (Extra Cellular Water)

ECW represents all of the fluid that exists outside of cellular structures and circulates throughout the body carrying sodium, chloride, bicarbonate ions and nutrients. ECW exists and flows within lymph tissues, blood vessels, the gastrointestinal tract, intestines, interstitial spaces, and also in the spinal fluid. Normal ECW for males is 40% of total body water and 50% for women. High ECW indicates edema (water retention). Low ECW indicates
dehydration.


ICW (Intracellular Water)

ICW represents all the fluid that is contained inside the cellular membrane. ICW accounts for approximately two-thirds of total body water and also is composed of more K+ ions than extracellular water. Muscle and organ cells contain more ICW fluid than do fat cells; therefore, if a patient’s muscle mass increases, you can expect an increase in intracellular water.

Basal Metabolic Rate

Metabolism occurs in two distinct and interdependent phases: 1.) catabolism, in which the body breaks down food into its component parts and harvests the energy stored in its atomic bonds, and 2.) anabolism, in which those component parts and energy are used to build new tissues and conduct basic life functions. Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body requires every day to perform its most basic function including:

1. Breathing
2. Digesting
3. Heart beating
4. Muscles activity
5. Transportation of fluids and tissue
6. Circulation of blood

BMR is a representation of the amount of energy you would require if you laid in bed all day without ever moving a single muscle. Since most of us do a bit more than that, a daily activity level must also be factored in. BMR is only a way to estimate how fast you burn calories. The slower your metabolism, the more difficult it will be to lose weight. If you burn your daily calorie intake, you will maintain your current weight. Burning more than your daily intake causes weight loss.

There are many factors that vary your metabolism. However, exercise and daily activity level are keys to increasing your BMR. There can be major nutritional consequences to the decline of the BMR in advanced age. Decreased caloric requirements may lead to decreased food intake. Sufficiently low caloric intake can lead to deficient intake of essential nutrients. The more lean tissue, specifically body cell mass, the higher the BMR.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Energy Levels

Above 2124 Extreme energy
1809-2123 High Energy
1597-1808 Average energy
1387-1596 Below average
1176-1386 Low average
below 1175 Warning

Conclusion

Increasing evidence indicates that altered body composition, as seen with obesity, diabetes, and cancer is a consequence, at least in part, of nutritional, environmental and lifestyle changes that result in early changes in body composition as measured by BIA. Given these associations between health and body composition, BIA represents a primary tool for assessing the trajectory of health of the individual and should be a component of every patient evaluation. Longitudinal studies of a patient’s body composition over time by BIA is an invaluable tool in personalized a program to the individual needs of the patient.

DCA studies organ/tissue health. DCA provides us specific information of organ and tissue system tonus.

The Dermal Conductance Analysis originated with “Ryodoraku” (ryo = good, 'do is (electro) conductive, 'raku = line) and Electroacupuncture According to Voll (EAV). It has since gone by many names purporting to extend from these original discoveries: Electrodermal Screening (EDS) • bioelectric functions diagnosis (BFD) • bioresonance therapy (BRT) • meridian stress assessment (MSA) • Bio-energy regulatory technique (BER) • Biological Functional Diagnostics (BFD). Dr. Nakatani of Japan was the first person to measure the electrical activity of acupuncture points and the first to formulate diagnostic and treatment criteria from these measurements. Reinhold Voll followed closely with similar research in Germany in the early 1950's. Nakatani is credited for the discovery of Ryodoten or Electro permeable Points (EPP). Nakatani and Voll both discovered that the number of electro permeable points varied with any disease process. Nakatani called these Responsive Ryodo-points or Reactive Electropermeable points (REPPs). These points often correspond with trigger points or Ah Shi (tender to touch) points. Nakatani theorized, like many before him, that they occurred along tracts of the nervous system and were representative of internal disorder/dysfunction and/or disease.

I can claim to be one of the original American student's of Voll and author of texts on EAV in English beginning in 1978. There has been considerable controversy regarding the efficacy and accuracy of many of the Electro-dermal screening devices for either the analysis of medical conditions or the evalulation of suitable therapeutics. Objective opponents of the EDS devices have criticized the utility of this transdermal method because the proper readings are restricted to the knowledge and training of the examiner and are thus limited to the skilled and educated. The same however could be said equally of ultrasonography and electrocadiology.

Dermal conductance analysis is the galvanic measurement of skin conductance on sensitive points on the skin. The measurement rarely elicits pain, takes only a few seconds per point, with a complete analysis finished within minutes.

The technician's training and skill sets are the most important factor in the proper use of any of these devices in clinical practice. The history of the ElectroDermal-screening device is replete with both success and failures, but there have been quite a few scientifically validated studies. The basic concept for all of the ElectroDermal screening devices was the invention of Dr. Reinhardt Voll, who in the 1950s, discovered that the electrical skin resistance of the human body is not homogenous and that the meridians of Chinese acupuncture influenced skin resistance over the body which may be examined as focalized electrical fields. The same research during this period was being carried out by Dr. Maurice Mussat in France, and Dr. Nakatani in Japan.

Voll showed that the skin is a semi-conductor in relation to the outside environment as the Chinese postulated, and that it could be electrically measured. Dr. Saxton Burr of Harvard also validated this by his electrical measurements. He eloquently stated: “The Universe in which we find ourselves and from which we can not be separated is a place of Law and Order. It is not an accident, nor chaos. It is organized and maintained by an Electro-dynamic field capable of determining the position and movement of all charged particles. For nearly half a century, the logical consequences of this theory have been subjected to rigorously controlled conditions and met with no contradictions.” (Blueprint For Immortality, by Dr. Harold Saxton Burr)

By the late 1950s Voll had learned that the body had at least 800 points on the skin which more or less followed the 12 energy patterns of the classical Chinese meridians. Each of these specific points, on adults and children, Voll called a Measurement Point (MP). Working with an engineer, Fritz Werner, Voll created an instrument to measure the skin resistance at each of the acupuncture points, patterned after Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR). In 1953, Voll had established the procedure that became known as Electro-Acupuncture according to Voll (EAV). This included two parts:

1.  The first part was point testing in which a conductance measurement was taken at selected acupuncture points. Normal measurement values were established on healthy school children, pathologic values were deteremined on numerous patients.

2.  The second part was the engineering development to balance these points by the use of controlled electronic pulses.

3. A third technique that developed was the accidental discovery that certain medicines, by virtue of their energy field could influence the conductance at specific points. This became known as Medication Testing. This method due to its transient nature has been most controversial and its confirmation remains for more scientific validation.

During the 1950s, many investigators studied the electrical conductance of the skin. They evaluated the elasticity, resistance, permeability, and chemistry among many other properties of the skin and found that there was a much lower skin resistance (higher conductance) at specific points on the skin. These points overlapped the classical Chinese acupuncture points. Skin resistance can vary from a few thousand to 1 million ohms, normally. Body resistance is not a fixed quantity. It varies minutely from person to person and from time to time due to weather, from internal disease, and environmental conditions as Burr concluded. Ohm's law states that the electric current or flow drawn depends on the resistance of the body's tissues. So, just as temperature conditions vary, so do electrical conditions. And just as in thermography where room conditions must be stable and ambient, so too with measuring skin conductance, the skin must not be too moist or dry, nor too cold nor hot.

Disorders and the Skin

In the 1890s Sir Henry Head discovered certain areas of the skin that develop tenderness (allodynia) in the course of visceral disease. These areas were later termed “Head zones”. In addition, he also emphasized the existence of specific points within these zones, that he called “maximum points”, a finding that seems to be almost forgotten today. The search for anatomical correlates of acupuncture-related structures (acupoints, conduits, etc.) has been an ongoing effort since the very first days of Head's research, both Occidental and Oriental. The anatomical structures most often investigated in this context are those of the nervous system, specifically the dermatomes. This popularity is easily understandable because the nervous system offers mechanisms for both afferent and efferent transmission of signals which decidedly alters skin conductance due to influence on vascularity and tonus.

The body's connective tissues are composed of a ground substance of glycosaminosglycans (protein molecules that are held under tension by the collagen fibers). These molecules have water binding properties and vary under influence of hormones, e.g. insulin, and sympathetic nerve influences. Disturbances of the sympathetic nerve activity can change local hydration and thus conductance of electric current. Autonomic nerve dysfunction leads to tissue changes not unlike those seen in reflex sympathetic dystrophy [RSD], but certainly not on that scale of disturbance. These are very subtle changes and not easily recognizable to the naked eye, but measureable with a calibrated electronic device. Gunn developed the "match-stick test": by gently pushing a matchstick into the skin, it leaves a microscopic pitting. We note from probe stylus measurements in DCA, that the more pathological the reading, the more a 3-5 mm pit is left in the skin.

An important neuronal concept is the so-called Head zones, discovered more than 100 years ago by Sir Henry Head (1861–1940). In a seminal series of papers he published data collected on hundreds of clinical cases. In his studies, Head pursued a 2-fold approach comparing areas of cutaneous tenderness (i.e., dynamic or thermal allodynia) in viscerally diseased patients with patterns observed in rashes of herpes zoster (shingles). Today Head zones are thought to coincide to a large extent with dermatomes, that is, areas of skin innervated by one and the same spinal nerve. The most often cited theory for the mechanism of Head zones is that of viscerocutaneous reflexes: Viscero- and somatoafferent (nociceptive) neurons converge on the level of the spinal cord. This convergence is thought to take place near the lateral column, although the exact location in terms of Rexed laminae as well as the mechanism leading to the false reference of visceral to cutaneous pain signals are still unknown. It is interesting to note that such a common diagnostic tool as the Head zones, is still so poorly recognized more than 100 years after its discovery given the volminous amount of data that acupuncture research has provided.

Research began to reveal that the acupuncture points being investigated were considered to be "information points" and the assumption was made that the health status of an organ will affect the nerve tonus and thus the concentrations of ions at the resultant measurement points along the meridian (dermatome) pathways. It was considered that inflammation of an organ may cause an increase in ion concentration distally in the skin which enhances the flow of electrons causing resistance to decrease on the measurement device. Reciprocally, a degeneration of an organ may cause a decrease of nerve tonus and the ion concentration reduces which hinders the flow of electrons, so as the resistance increases thus the conductance measurment of the device decreases. This has been confirmed by the author's measurements, thousands upon thousands of times.

Spinal nerves have motor fibers and sensory fibers. The motor fibers innervate certain muscles, while the sensory fibers innervate certain areas of skin. A skin area innervated by the sensory fibers of a single nerve root is known as a dermatome. A group of muscles primarily innervated by the motor fibers of a single nerve root is known as a myotome. Although slight variations do exist, dermatome and myotome patterns of distribution are relatively consistent from person to person. Dejerine and Guillaume experimentally showed that the different visceral organs were in communication with certain skin zones that could become painful in the affections of these organs. This skin expression of the visceral disease that Abrams had called "Endogenetic Skin Reflex".  The nervous stimulus from an irritated organ would thus be driven to the one of the numerous nerve centers as a distal irritation from which it would be projected on the skin territory.  Very weakly sensory, the vegetative nerves of the vessels could equally play a small role; but the reflexes essentially of the nature cerebrospinal would play greater importance.

Head found in many visceral diseases, if the sensitiveness of the skin were tested by running a pin point over the cutaneous surface, definite areas could be demonstrated showing hypersensitiveness (hyperalgesia) to pain. This led to the discovery of the dermatomes, research that has been long forgotten. The dermatome theory of Head and Mackensie of the transmitted pain, seems on the other hand more better to suit to the hollow organs. They conclude of their studies that:

a) The skin painful zone is in comparison with the projection of the visceral zones on the skin;

b) That this pain is accompanied, in certain cases, of spasm and hyperesthesia (painful spot);

c) The dermatomes (painful skin zones) are topographically radicular [a nerve fiber which joins others to form a nerve upon which they converge upon the spine] and ganglionic.

Histological studies have shown that the transdermal galvanic measurement of a mere 2 volts and less than 100 microamperes does not penetrate lower than the dermal papillae. Thus it is not directly influenced by the body's "volume conductor," that being the extracellular body fluids. Thus the measurement is greatly different than bioimpedance analysis. The theory of the author, developed over some twenty five years of active research is that the cutaneous nerves within the ground substance of connective tissue form micro-plexuses (a mosaic) at the level of the skin. By a histological analysis, in the cross section of the epidermis, the somatic fibres and the autonomic fibres are mixed together in the branchings or strands forming microplexi, and thus form a mosaic of somatic and autonomic micro-regions contributing much to the measurement and also the "acupuncture effect." These plexi, under the influence of the internal organs and bowels, thus control vascularity, sensory gland tonus, ion distribution, and moisture, all of which contribute to skin conductance.

We thus conclude that when abnormalities of internal organs are present, these are reflected upon the skin's surface in four fashions:

1. Organ-body surface sensory nerve reflex (sore points),
2. Organ-body surface motor relfex (paralysis or hypertonia),
3. Organ-body surface sympathetic nerve reflex (hyperesthesia),
4. Organ-body surface parasympathetic nerve reflex (hypoesthesia).

As a rule, the disappearance of a hypersentive zone is associated with relief of a diseased organ.

From the view of ElectroDermal analysis, the skin and body becomes an integral part of a closed circuit. The conductance circuit touches two areas on the skin being tested, one ground or the cathode, the other, the measurement stylus or anode. In the first point of contact, the ground electrode is held in the palm of the opposite hand (dermatome) to be tested. In the second place the test probe pin points the specific acupuncture or conductance spots on skin. After completing this closed circuit, a known amount of electric current is emitted from the instrument through the probe. The instrument then measures the conductance from baseline to peak value, represented on an analog meter, representing the specific conductance point that is being tested by the 3 millimeter probe tip. This represents the dynamic conductance value (SEE VIDEO HERE).

The Future of Dermal Conductance Analysis

The Future of DCA will rest on a rational view of the system in the hands of qualified practitioners. The first major problem for Voll's original system was that lay people and entrepreneurs of software dominated the practice early on, after Voll's first seminar in San Francisco, circa 1978. Software was deemed as a way to facilitate learning the system as well as modernizing its appearance. This damaged the field early on and even persists to this day. Most users of the system are not medical practitioners and have only vague knowledge and experience in use of the system.

The second major problem that confronts the novices in dermal measurements, aka ElectroDermal Screeners, is reproducibility. This is directly related to the proper location of the point, the placement technique of the electrode, and the medical training of the technician. We must abandon the vague concept of "meridians" and approach the selection of points no different than taking a medical history and performing a proper physical. For example, with a patient presenting an unresovled cough, just as we would ask for history of previous illness, location of chest pain or discomfort, evidence of sputum, palpate and auscultate; from the standpoint of measurement point selection we would choose points for the bronchus, bronchioles, alveoli, trachea, lymph nodes, pharynx, and white blood cells. The location of meridians wouuld be of no concern to a medical practitioner.

Another major problem are the various instruments on the market that are supposedly configured to perform the valid measurement of the conductance: from a baseline to peak, to the observation of declination of the peak measurement, aka the "indicator drop," all with respect to using three points of reference - beginning measurement of zero (0), peak value, and decline to a stabile value. Most biological systems are not linear and the inclination and the declination slopes are very important factors in determining the presence of a disturbance in the energy flow in any one point in time. Normal skin is basically a simple measurement of conductance, from basaeline to peak; whereas abnormal measurements exhibit baseline to peak, followed by a decay in conductance, thus disorder is essentially a measurement of capacitance.

Summary

The author, having practiced Dermal Conductance Analysis for more than thirty years, can attest there is no other bedside form of palpable diagnostics of such utility and rapidity than DCA. The usual patient scan is less than 5 minutes and corroborates the chief complaints as well as uncovers pathologic and etiologic factors which should point to laboratory or radiological confirmations. When combined with BIA and ECG in the clinical setting, comprehensive patient care is assured.

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4. J Hlubik, P Hlubik, L Lhotska. Bioimpedance in medicine: measuring hydration influence. Faculty of Military Health Sciences Hradec Králové, University of Defense, Czech Republic.

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In German

1: Bürk, Jörg Martin: Die BFD (Bioelektronische Funktions- und Regulationsdiagnostik) als Methode-Prüfung ihrer Reproduzierbarkeit, Verläßlichkeit und Eindeutigkeit an gesunden, freiwilligen Probanden im intraindividuellen Versuch. Med. Diss. Würzburg. 1991.
2: Pflaum, Peter: Untersuchungen zur Reproduzierbarkeit bioelektrischer Meßergebnisse an Hautpunkten nach dem Verfahren der Bioelektronischen Funktions- und Regulationsdiagnostik (BFD). Zahnmed. Diss. Würzburg. 1992.
3: Schmitz, Olaf: Untersuchung zur Objektivierung der Quecksilberbelastung als Ursache bei Symptomen der Colitis ulcerosa bzw. des Morbus Crohn. Med. Diss. Würzburg. 1991. 
4: Umhöfer, Elke: Vergleichbarkeit der Ergebnisse einer Zahn-Herdsuche durchgeführt mit konventionellen Untersuchungsmethoden und mit Methoden der Bioelektronischen Funktions- und Regulationsdiagnostik. Zahnmed. Diss. Würzburg. 1991.
 5: O.Bergsmann, Universität Wien,  Elektroakuppunkturverfahren .(Wiener Internationale Akademie für Ganzheitsmedizin, Facultas-Verlag Wien,1992)
6: O. Bergsmann, F.Perger stellen in "Risikofaktor Herdgeschehen"  (Wiener Internationale Akademie für Ganzheitsmedizin, Facultas-Verlag Wien,1993)
7: Schurk H.-E., Wiegele, B. "Physikalische Grundlagen der Elektroakupunktur nach Voll; Ergebnisse der ersten Diplomarbeiten an der FH Augsburg, Panta, 3. Quartal 1994, Heft 3, Seite 49-54.
8: Wiegele B., K. Hefele "Prüfplatz zur Untersuchung des Meß- und Anzeigeverhaltens von EAV-Geräten", Panta 6, Heft 3 (1995) Seite 62-68
Zusammenfassung: In diesem Beitrag wird ein PC-gestützter Prüfplatz für EAV-Geräte vorgestellt, mit dem es .
9: Studie zum Thema "Chinesische Organuhr Electroakupunktur" Dissertation Universität Marburg, Zeitschrift für Akupunktur von Prof. G. Hildebrandt, Marburg veröffentlicht.
10: Pilot- Doppel-Blindstudie mit EAV zur Biokompatibilität von Zahnmetallen und Meßwertsicherheit. Prof. Dr.med dent Siebert FUniversität Berlin.1996 . Vortrag
11 Bullemer, M.: Entwicklung eines Laborsystems zur Durchführung reproduzierbarer Messungen bioelektrischer Signale in der Elektroakupunktur und die Bestimmung und Erfassung der physikalischen Einflußgröten, Dipomarbeit, FH Augsburg, 28.7.1995
12 Schurk, H.-E., Bullemer, M. : "Korrelation zwischen Zeigerausschlag und Elektrodenanpressdruck bei EAV-Messungen", Panta 6, Karl F. Haug Verlag, Heidelberg, 1995
13 Prof. Jounoussov, Orthopäde, Universität Moskau, Studie über Therapieerfolge in einer Rehabilitationsklinik mit EAV-Eingangsuntersuchung.Zeitschrift für Naturheilkunde, 9, 1996
14. Diagnostikvergleich EAV- Laborwerte bei Toxinen, Uni.Heidelberg, I.Gerhard, Langetepe, 1996, angekündigt.
15. Arbeit an der FH Augsburg zur automatischen Akupunkturpunktmessung per Roboter zeigte die gute Reproduzierbarkeit der Meßwerte bei maschineller Messung.