Validation of the doubly labeled water method using off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy and isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

When the doubly labeled water (DLW) method is used to measure total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), isotope measurements are typically performed using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). New technologies, such as off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) provide comparable isotopic measurements of standard waters and human urine samples, but the accuracy of carbon dioxide production (V̇co2) determined with OA-ICOS has not been demonstrated. We compared simultaneous measurement V̇co2 obtained using whole-room indirect calorimetry (IC) with DLW-based measurements from IRMS and OA-ICOS. Seventeen subjects (10 female; 22 to 63 yr) were studied for 7 consecutive days in the IC. Subjects consumed a dose of 0.25 g H218O (98% APE) and 0.14 g 2H2O (99.8% APE) per kilogram of total body water, and urine samples were obtained on days 1 and 8 to measure average daily V̇co2 using OA-ICOS and IRMS. V̇co2 was calculated using both the plateau and intercept methods. There were no differences in V̇co2 measured by OA-ICOS or IRMS compared with IC when the plateau method was used. When the intercept method was used, V̇co2 using OA-ICOS did not differ from IC, but V̇co2 measured using IRMS was significantly lower than IC. Accuracy (~1-5%), precision (~8%), intraclass correlation coefficients ( R = 0.87-90), and root mean squared error (30-40 liters/day) of V̇co2 measured by OA-ICOS and IRMS were similar. Both OA-ICOS and IRMS produced measurements of V̇co2 with comparable accuracy and precision compared with IC.

Maximizing precision and accuracy of the doubly labeled water method via optimal sampling protocol, calculation choices, and incorporation of 17O measurements.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The doubly labeled water (DLW) method is the gold standard methodology for determination of free-living, total daily energy expenditure (TEE). However, there is no single accepted approach for either the sampling protocols (daily vs. two-point, in which samples are collected after dosing and at the end of the measurement period) or the calculations used in the determination of the rate of carbon dioxide production (rCO2) and TEE. Moreover, fluctuations in natural background abundances introduce error in the calculation of rCO2 and TEE. The advent of new technologies makes feasible the possibility of including additional isotope measures (17O) to account for background variation, which may improve accuracy. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Sixteen subjects were studied for 7 consecutive days in a whole-room indirect calorimeter (IC) with concurrent measurement of TEE by DLW. Daily urine samples were obtained and isotope ratios were determined using off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS). RESULTS: We determined the best combination of approaches for estimating dilution spaces and elimination rates and calculated average daily volume of carbon dioxide production (VCO2) using six different published equations. Using this best combination, multi-point fitting of isotope elimination rates using the daily urine samples substantially improved the average precision (4.5% vs. 6.0%) and accuracy (-0.5% vs. -3.0%) compared with the two-point method. This improvement may partly reflect the less variable day-to-day chamber measurements of energy expenditure. Utilizing 17O measurements to correct for errors due to background isotope fluctuations provided additional but minor improvements in precision (4.2% vs. 4.5%) and accuracy (0.2% vs. 0.5%). CONCLUSIONS: This work shows that optimizing sampling and calculation protocols can improve the accuracy and precision of DLW measurements.