INTRODUCTION:

Combat sports refer to a set of individual modalities of great relevance in the world sports scene. Most combat sports are classified by weight categories, so athletes tend to reduce their fat mass and even their body mass as much as possible to compete in the lower weight categories.

OBJECTIVES:

Understand the importance of DEXA in the assessment of body composition in combat sports athletes.

METHODOLOGY:

A literature review was carried out in the Pubmed and Sciencedirect databases using the following keywords "body composition", "DXA", "combat sport", "Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry" with the determinant "AND". Initially, 35 articles published in the last 10 years were obtained and later analyzed, first by title, then by reading the abstract. After reading the full text, we selected 12 articles.

RESULTS:

Full-body DEXA allows quick and easy body composition estimation. With regard to anthropometric methods, it has the advantage of providing measures of total and regional body composition. It is accurate, reproducible, fast and involves a very low radiation dose for the patient. It proved to be effective in assessing fat mass, lean mass and bone mineral content, with a very low margin of error (2-6%). The monitoring of athletes with the use of DEXA can help in monitoring the risk of injury. The high cost, the low availability of the equipment, the radiation that requires manipulation by a trained professional, the fact that it is a relatively new method and the existence of a contraindication regarding the subject's weight above the limit of the table weight are limiting factors of use from DEXA.

CONCLUSIONS:

This systematic review indicates that dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is being considered the new gold standard for measuring body composition.

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