PO-0459 Fat Mass(fm) And Fat Free Mass(ffm) Indices In Preterm And Term Infants During First 6 Months Of Life

The development of normative reference Body Composition (BC) data in infancy, is an important step towards evaluation of postnatal growth in clinical practice. Weight gain fails to differentiate lean body mass (constitution) from fat mass (nutrition). Percentile ranks and length normalised indices of FFM and FM can define nutritional depletion or obesity. We present longitudinal data from a large dataset of stable growing infants. BC data (n = 857) from 574 infants (22–42 wks) enrolled in 4 longitudinal studies, 2/3rd were preterm, was considered as independent data points. Preterms on fortified breast milk or formula (80 kcal/dL), term infants on breast milk or formula (67 kcal/dL). Time points of measurement : after reaching full enteral feeding, at term and two further time points until a maximum of 6 months of corrected age. BC was measured by Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (QDR 1500; Hologic). R software (GAMLSS) used for construction of growth curves. Length of preterms remain shorter than terms, both increases linearly at 0.7 cm/wk. Median FM/FFM in preterm is 500 g/2450 g (40 wks) and 1700 g/4500 g (60 wks) compared to 430 g/2790 g (40 wks) and 2400 g/4700 g (60 wks) for term. Preterm FMI centiles are higher than terms till 45–50 wks corrected. Preterm FFMI increases progressively till 40 wks, then remains constant over time like terms (Figure 1). Growth pattern for preterm vary from term, justifying their higher nutritional requirement to support rapid FFM growth initially. FM being inverse of FFM, length normalised indices rather than percentages allow independent assessment of growth in each body compartment, while compensating for difference in body size of term and preterm infants.