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Body surface area formulae: an alarming ambiguity

Abstract

Body surface area (BSA) plays a key role in several medical fields, including cancer chemotherapy, transplantology, burn treatment and toxicology. BSA is often a major factor in the determination of the course of treatment and drug dosage. A series of formulae to simplify the process have been developed. Because easy-to-identify, yet general, body coefficient results of those formulae vary considerably, the question arises as to whether the choice of a particular formula is valid and safe for patients. Here we show that discrepancies between most of the known BSA formulae can reach 0.5 m2 for the standard adult physique. Although many previous studies have demonstrated that certain BSA formulae provide an almost exact fit with the patients examined, all of these studies have been performed on a limited and isolated group of people. Our analysis presents a broader perspective, considering 25 BSA formulae. The analysis revealed that the choice of a particular formula is a difficult task. Differences among calculations made by the formulae are so great that, in certain cases, they may considerably affect patients’ mortality, especially for people with an abnormal physique or for children.

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Keywords

Details

Category:
Articles
Type:
artykuł w czasopiśmie wyróżnionym w JCR
Published in:
Scientific Reports no. 6, pages 1 - 8,
ISSN: 2045-2322
Language:
English
Publication year:
2016
Bibliographic description:
Redlarski G., Pałkowski A., Krawczuk M.: Body surface area formulae: an alarming ambiguity// Scientific Reports. -Vol. 6, (2016), s.1-8
DOI:
Digital Object Identifier (open in new tab) 10.1038/srep27966
Verified by:
Gdańsk University of Technology

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