Is adductor pollicis muscle thickness a good predictor of lean mass in adults?

Abstract

SummaryBackground & aimsLean mass (LM) is an important parameter in clinical outcomes, which highlights the necessity of reliable tools for its estimation. The adductor pollicis muscle thickness (APMT) is easily accessible and suffers minimal interference from the adjacent subcutaneous fat tissue.ObjectiveTo assess the relationship between the APMT and LM in a sample of Southern Brazilian adults.MethodsParticipants were adults from the 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort. LM was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). LM and lean mass index (LMI – LM divided by the square of height – kg/m2) were the outcomes. APMT was measured using a skinfold caliper. The mean of three measurements in the non-dominant hand was used in the analyses. APMT was described according to socio-demographic characteristics and nutritional status. The relationship between APMT and both LM and LMI was evaluated by correlation coefficient and linear regression using APMT as a single anthropometric parameter and also in addition to BMI.ResultsAPMT was assessed in 3485 participants. APMT was higher in males, non-whites, less-schooled and obese individuals. APMT was moderately correlated to LM and LMI (ranged from 0.44 to 0.57). Correlation coefficients were higher for LMI as outcome and in females (LM: 0.51 and LMI: 0.57). APMT explained 19% and 26% of the variance in LM in males and females, respectively, whereas it explained 26% and 33% of the variance in LMI. APMT increased the prediction for LM in 3 and 4 percentage points in males and females, in comparison to explained by BMI. BMI explained 48% and 59% of the variance of LMI in males and females whereas APMT increased it to 51% and 62% for both sexes, respectively.ConclusionsResults were not good enough to promote the APMT as a single predictor of LM or LMI in epidemiological studies. APMT has a little predictive capacity in estimating LM or LMI when BMI is also considered.

Adductor Pollicis Muscle Thickness for nutritional assessment: a systematic review

“…From the final sample, 13 studies were published between 2004 and 2016, with only two longitudinal (18)(19) and the other with a cross-sectional design (5,7,(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28) . Regarding the samples, two studies were carried out with HIV-infected individuals (20)(21) , two with patients candidates for surgery (7,22) , two with patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (23)(24) , two with patients in the hospital ward (25,28) , two with chronic kidney patients on hemodialysis (18,27) and three with healthy individuals (5,19,26) . The characteristics of the studies included in the review are presented in Chart 2.…”

“…Chart 1 -Quality criteria assessed for the confirmation of eligibility of the studies to be included in the review All of the studies have properly described the EMAP measurement methodology, as proposed by Lameu et al (5) , and used the simple arithmetic mean from three measurements. Most adopted the Lange ® (5,7,(18)(19)(20)(21)25,28) brand analog adipometer, three from Cescorf ® (22,24,27) and two from Vogel ® (23,26) .…”

Nutritional assessment, handgrip strength and adductor pollicis muscle thickness in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

“…There is a tendency to prefer muscle mass functionality as nutritional assessment, in patients with cirrhosis, especially those with stable chronic liver disease in Child-Pugh A [38]. In other populations, including healthy subjects, APMT was not a good nor a sufficient lean body mass predictor to be used alone [39,40].…”

Adductor Pollicis Muscle Thickness and Obesity Are Associated with Poor Outcome after Stroke: A Cohort Study

“…4 Recently, it was observed that APTM has a moderate correlation with lean body mass in healthy people, suggesting that APMT may be useful and can be used in combination with other methods. 26 In surgical patients, the measurement of APMT was significantly associated with nutritional status. 27 Regarding the possibility of using APMT to measure muscle mass, this purpose has been considered important to estimate prognosis.…”

“…Low APMT was previously evaluated in healthy people and in patients with stroke. 4,26 In addition, in diseases such as surgical, critical, and cirrhotic patients, the APMT was associated to poor prognosis. [27][28][29][30] The present study hypothesized that APM is a potential tool to predict prognosis after stroke.…”