Diagnostic Criteria and Clinical Outcomes in Sarcopenia Research: A Literature Review - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

Diagnostic Criteria and Clinical Outcomes in Sarcopenia Research: A Literature Review

Alex Han et al. J Clin Med. 2018.

Abstract

By the sixth decade of life, nearly one quarter of the population has substantial muscle atrophy, or sarcopenia. Despite the creation of a standardized definition of sarcopenia by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People, variability may exist in the diagnostic criteria utilized for clinical sarcopenia research. The primary objectives of this review were to characterize diagnostic criteria used for measurement of sarcopenia in original studies, and to describe associations between sarcopenia and important clinical outcomes. We performed a literature review of the term "sarcopenia" in PubMed. Inclusion criteria were English language, original data, a clear and specific definition for diagnosing sarcopenia, and the analysis of sarcopenia's effect on a clinical outcome. A total of 283 studies met inclusion criteria. More than half of the included sarcopenia investigations were level IV studies (54.1%), while 43.1% provided level II evidence. Under one third (27.6%) of studies examined sarcopenia with regard to surgical outcomes. In terms of diagnostic criteria for sarcopenia, 264 (93.3%) studies used measures of skeletal muscle mass, with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) being the most common modality (43.6%). Sarcopenia was found to be a consistent predictor of chronic disease progression, all-cause mortality, poorer functional outcomes, and postoperative complications. In conclusion, there is substantial evidence that sarcopenia impacts both medical and surgical outcomes. However, current research has utilized heterogeneous diagnostic criteria for sarcopenia. Further efforts to standardize the modalities used to diagnose sarcopenia in clinical research and practice will help strengthen our ability to study this important phenomenon.

Keywords: aging; atrophy; muscle mass; review; sarcopenia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Flowchart of publications meeting inclusion criteria based on a PubMed search of the term “sarcopenia” with the level of evidence breakdown of the resulting studies.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Distribution of included studies: surgical, medical, and population-based studies.

References

    1. Cruz-Jentoft A.J., Baeyens J.P., Bauer J.M., Boirie Y., Cederholm T., Landi F., Martin F.C., Michel J.-P., Rolland Y., Schneider S.M., et al. Sarcopenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis: Report of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People. Age Ageing. 2010;39:412–423. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afq034. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Melton L.J., Khosla S., Crowson C.S., O’Connor M.K., O’Fallon W.M., Riggs B.L. Epidemiology of sarcopenia. J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 2000;48:625–630. - PubMed
    1. Peterson S.J., Braunschweig C.A. Prevalence of sarcopenia and associated outcomes in the clinical setting. Nutr. Clin. Pract. 2016;31:40–48. doi: 10.1177/0884533615622537. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marty E., Liu Y., Samuel A., Or O., Lane J. A review of sarcopenia: Enhancing awareness of an increasingly prevalent disease. Bone. 2017;105:276–286. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2017.09.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kang S.H., Park J.W., Yoon K.W., Do J.Y. Limb/trunk lean mass ratio as a risk factor for mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients. J. Ren. Nutr. 2013;23:315–323. doi: 10.1053/j.jrn.2012.09.004. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources