FAQ / Trouble­shooting

Assessment of the implementation & interpretation of measurements for prostheses

Patient population:
Wearers of prostheses, in particular knee and/or total hip joint endoprostheses (hereinafter knee TEP or hip TEP).

1. May a measurement be carried out at all or are there contraindications?
   Answer: Yes, a measurement may be carried out. The contraindications (see operating instructions for the above-mentioned devices) list "active prostheses" as an exclusion criterion. Active prostheses are high-tech prostheses with circuitry, electric motors etc., for example to generate force with the artificial leg when climbing stairs. Endoprostheses such as knee and hip TEPs are made of metal and/or ceramic, but do not have a circuit that can be damaged by the BIA current.
2. Can a measurement be successfully performed by the device?
   Answer: Yes, a measurement can be successfully performed by the device. The seca mBCA devices have internal quality checkers which cancel the measurement in the event of abnormal body resistance (e.g. movement during the measurement). This prevents inaccurate results. However, as the current does not usually flow through the knee or hip TEPs, the body resistances do not change.
3. Does the measurement provide accurate results?
   Answer: Yes, a measurement provides accurate results for clinical use. Since the prostheses are typically not detected by the current, but the current only flows under the skin through the muscles, the prostheses do not influence the measurement result.
4. Is there anything else that needs to be taken into account?
   Answer: Yes, fresh fractures (e.g. femoral neck head) and surgical treatment (e.g. by means of hip replacement) lead to (local) oedema formation. This must be taken into account when measuring people with fresh fractures or immediately after surgery. Accurate results can be expected after local healing.

Below is some information on contraindications: 

• Height and weight measurement is generally possible for all patients.
• Bioimpedance measurements must not be carried out on people with the following characteristics:
  Electronic implants, e.g. pacemakers- Active prostheses- Glucose measurement sensor under the skin e.g. FreeStyle Libre
• Bioimpedance measurements must not be carried out on persons connected to one of the following devices:
  Life-sustaining electronic systems, e.g. artificial heart, artificial lung- Portable electronic medical devices, e.g. ECG devices or infusion pumps
• For persons with the following characteristics, bioimpedance measurements may only be carried out after consultation with the attending physician:
  Cardiac arrhythmia- Pregnancy
• Purely metallic devices (e.g. TEPs, stents) have no influence on the measurement or the health of your patient/client.

First check the seca services and restart them if necessary (quit first, then start, do not use the restart function). Open the services by entering "Services" in the search bar of your PC (in Windows on the start screen at the bottom left) and opening the result found (the Services app). Now click on any service in the window that opens and tap "S" on the keyboard. Then scroll to find all services that start with "seca". Right-click on the services individually and select "Exit" and then "Start" in the menu that appears. When you have finished with all seca services, please search for the "postgresql" service and do the same with it.
If the error still occurs, please have the firewall port settings checked. This can be done manually by your IT department.

The following ports must be enabled:

Inbound and outbound:

Port 20001 UDP/TCP
Port 20002 UDP/TCP
Port 20003 UDP/TCP
Port 20004 UDP/TCP
Port 20006 UDP/TCP
Port 20007 UDP/TCP
Port 20010 TCP
Port 20011 UDP
Port 20012 UDP/TCP
Port 59285 TCP
Port 60668 TCP
Port 60669 UDP/TCP
Port 60670 UDP/TCP
Port 60671 TCP
Port 60669 TCP

Outbound:

Port 60667 UDP/TCP

Inbound:

Port 60767 UDP/TCP

Is another "third-party software" programme (e.g. McAfee, Kaspersky, etc.) running in addition to the normal Windows firewall settings? If so, you must deactivate it or set the seca services as trustworthy.

Then check whether the LAN cable connection has been installed correctly and whether the cable shows any external damage.

As a final check, please look at the IP settings on the PC and on the scale. Please check whether both devices are in the same ranch and can communicate. On the PC, you can check and change the Ethernet settings in the "Network connections" menu. On the seca scale, you must open the admin settings. Click on "Units" in the top right-hand corner to open a drop-down menu. In this drop-down menu, please select the item "Ethernet Network" or "seca CLS network". You can make the necessary improvements there.

The quality control can be set to three levels (1 - 2 - off) via the display of the 514s/515s. Click on the button at the bottom right, which shows a red square in front of a grey square. Now click on "Settings". There you must log in as administrator (admin) (PIN is "00000"). Click on "Units" in the top right-hand corner to open a drop-down menu. In this drop-down menu, please select the item "Service: Primary functions" (Service: primary functions). The first item on the page that opens is "BIA quality check". By clicking on the selection field, the three different versions (Version 1; Version 2; Off) can be selected.

Attention: As soon as the quality check is switched off, the internal device check of your measurement results is switched off. This means that atypical or hardly comparable values can also be analysed (e.g. from nephrological or severely obese people), but it is also more difficult to detect incorrect measurements. 

Measurements with the mBCA are no longer possible as the device does not complete the self-test even after restarting. Disconnect the device from the power supply for at least 20 minutes. If the problem persists after restarting, please contact Technic Service. 

To assign a new password for a user, please log in as admin (password: admin)
Please go to the user administration under the Extras tab.
Under "Change" you can select the user to be changed. Here you can assign a new password (tick "User is password protected"), or continue without a password (remove tick)

• With an mBCA 525: The change is also transferred to the mBCA when you synchronise with the software again.
• With an mBCA 514/515: The PIN for logging on to the scale is displayed at the bottom of the page.

To perform a data backup, please log in as an administrator (user: admin, password: admin). Under the Extras tab, go to Data backup and then to Backup. 

If you have the problem with the missing display of the ASMI, please check the following on your PC, which contains the 115 software.

To activate ASMI  
Add a configuration parameter "AlwaysEnableASMI" to the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\seca\software\Seca.Analytics.exe.config".
The default value is "false", which leads to the missing ASMI.
If this setting is changed to "true", the ASMI implementation is used regardless of the configured setup location.

In this case, the seca analytics 115 software cannot find the Mediator service, even if the server IP is entered in the GUI settings.

Solution:
Please search for the following file in the installation path of the software:
C:\Program Files (x86)\seca\software\Seca.Analytics.exe.config

Edit these lines and enter the server IP under "Server IP":
    <servicesToContactOnStartup>
      <add key="MediatorService" value="SERVER IP:20001" />
    </servicesToContactOnStartup>

Please remove the following characters in the file:
    <!-- at the beginning
and
-- > at the end of the section

First check the seca services and restart them if necessary (quit first, then start, do not use the restart function). Open the services by entering "Services" in the search bar of your PC (in Windows on the start screen at the bottom left) and opening the result found (the Services app). Now click on any service in the window that opens and tap "S" on the keyboard. Then scroll to find all services that start with "seca". Right-click on the services individually and select "Exit" and then "Start" in the menu that appears. When you have finished with all seca services, please search for the "postgresql" service and do the same with it.

If the error still occurs, please have the firewall port settings checked. This can be done manually by your IT department.

The following ports must be enabled:

Inbound and outbound:

Port 20001 UDP/TCP
Port 20002 UDP/TCP
Port 20003 UDP/TCP
Port 20004 UDP/TCP
Port 20006 UDP/TCP
Port 20007 UDP/TCP
Port 20010 TCP
Port 20011 UDP
Port 20012 UDP/TCP
Port 59285 TCP
Port 60668 TCP
Port 60669 UDP/TCP
Port 60670 UDP/TCP
Port 60671 TCP
Port 60669 TCP

Outbound:

Port 60667 UDP/TCP

Inbound:

Port 60767 UDP/TCP

Is another "third-party software" programme (e.g. McAfee, Kaspersky, etc.) running in addition to the normal Windows firewall settings? If so, you must deactivate it or set the seca services as trustworthy.

Then check whether the LAN cable connection has been installed correctly and whether the cable shows any external damage.

As a final check, please look at the IP settings on the PC and on the scale. Please check whether both devices are in the same ranch and can communicate. On the PC, you can check and change the Ethernet settings in the "Network connections" menu. On the seca scale, you must open the admin settings. Click on "Units" in the top right-hand corner to open a drop-down menu. In this drop-down menu, please select the item "Ethernet Network" or "seca CLS network". You can make the necessary improvements there.

Create user 

1. click on User administration in the Extras menu. The User administration dialogue box appears. The New tab is active. 
2. enter the name of the user. 
3. make sure that the User is password protected checkbox is activated
   NOTE: To protect patient data, we always recommend protecting user accounts with a password. 
4. enter a password. 
5. enter the password again in the Repeat password field 
6. click on the arrow in the Group field. All selection options are displayed: - Administrator - Doctor - Assistant 
7. click on the role that you want to assign to the new user. (Only as a doctor can you view patient data). 8.
8. click on Create. The User has been created message appears and a user PIN is created.
   NOTE: The user only needs the user PIN to be able to access patient data in the seca software on a seca mBCA 514/515.

Changing user data 

1. in the extras menu, click on User administration and then on the Change tab.
2. click on the arrow in the User name field. All created users are displayed. 
3. click on the user whose data you want to change.
4. make the desired changes. 
5. ensure that the User is password-protected checkbox is activated. 
6. click on the Apply button. The message Change successful appears.

Delete user 

1. in the extras menu, click on User administration and then on the Delete tab.
2. click on the arrow in the User name field. All created users are displayed. 
3. click on the user you want to delete.
4. click on delete. The message Should the user really be deleted? [Name] appears. 
5. click on yes. The user is deleted.
   NOTE: It is not possible to delete all users with administrator rights. If you try to delete the last user with administrator rights, a corresponding message appears on the screen. 

Make sure that neither the arms of the person to be measured are touching the torso or the legs/thighs. If this is the case, place something between the arms and torso or between the thighs (towel). 

Check whether there are any prostheses, metal objects or similar. You should also check whether the grip and contact between the skin and electrodes is guaranteed. If the skin is very dry, you can moisten the skin surface. 

If the error persists, this error message must be analysed by seca. In preparation, please repeat the measurements with at least 3 different people and then save the system log file in the admin menu of the mBCA 514/515 on a USB stick. The default admin pin is 00000. The option for the system log export can be found under Settings / Admin / System.

The USB memory stick used must have the following properties:

• File system: FAT16
• No old log files on the stick

Please only use chlorine- and alcohol-free cleaning agents that are explicitly suitable for acrylic glass and other sensitive surfaces (active ingredient: e.g. quaternary ammonium compounds).

The USB stick may only have a maximum capacity of 2 GB and should be formatted as follows:

USB version: USB 2.0 only
Format: FAT16 and FAT only (NO exFAT)
Size: Maximum 2 GB

To partition a USB stick, please proceed as follows (ADMIN RIGHTS for the computer are NECESSARY):

Open CMD (Windows key --> CMD)

Enter "Diskpart" in CMD
Enter the following commands one after the other in Diskpart:
list disk
select disk [disc number]
clean
create partition primary
active
Format the stick as FAT using the Explorer.

The stick should now be recognised. However, the USB stick is empty and must be re-recorded with the necessary files (e.g. the desired update file).

To update your mBCA 514/515, your USB stick must meet the following requirements:

The USB stick may only have a maximum of 2 GB and should be formatted as follows:

USB version: USB 2.0 only
Format: FAT16 and FAT only (NO exFAT)
Size: Maximum 2 GB

The update file must be stored in the root directory of the USB stick. The root directory is always the "root folder", which can be found at the top level of a data structure.
The zipped file with the firmware and instructions can be found on our website. 

If you have measurement results that deviate from the norm, please send us the data for interpretation. Please send the important data of the person being measured (e.g. professional athletes, certain illnesses, medication, generally anything that is important and could influence the result) and the circumstances (sore muscles, changes in diet, time, etc.) to seca Service. The results will be analysed and, if necessary, discussed with you in a telephone call.

The following applies to the end customer:
If you have any further questions about your body composition, please contact the person who carried out your body composition analysis, for example your trainer, doctor or nutritionist. seca does not provide advice on body composition.

If an implausibly low value for visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is displayed, which is inconsistent with a high waist circumference, then the impedance of the trunk is probably very low. This may be due to water retention in the torso, which then leads to an overestimation of the fat-free mass and thus to an underestimation of the fat. To be on the safe side, you should also check once again whether the height, age and gender are correct.

A body composition with an implausible fat mass is occasionally displayed. This appears to be a particular problem for competitive athletes and is not limited to bioimpedance measurement. For example, we are also familiar with such results from air displacement plethysmography or underwater weighing. We are currently looking for the cause of such anomalies. In order to be able to analyse this case in more detail, we would be pleased if you could provide us with the measured values as a csv export from seca Analytics 115. This csv export should contain at least height, weight and impedance raw data so that we can understand the calculations. Are there any indications of a deviating body water percentage? An increased body water percentage could lead to an overestimation of the fat-free mass and thus to an underestimation of the fat mass; an unusually low body water percentage could lead to an overestimation of the fat mass.