MRI‐defined sarcopenia predicts mortality in patients with chronic liver disease

Abstract

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Sarcopenia in chronic liver disease: easy to diagnose but hard to treat

“…The major advantage of this approach is the lack of need for contrast agent injection and the possibility to use the same cutoff values that were developed and validated in CT-based studies. 8 Following this study we can now state that MRI and CT can be con-…”

“…In the current issue of Liver International Beer et al , demonstrate in a large cohort of ACLD patients, that sarcopenia could be rapidly and reproducibly assessed by TPMT (transverse psoas muscle thickness) evaluated on L3 on MRI by an abbreviated protocol. The major advantage of this approach is the lack of need for contrast agent injection and the possibility to use the same cut‐off values that were developed and validated in CT‐based studies 8 . Following this study we can now state that MRI and CT can be considered the most accurate modalities to quantify muscle mass, however, because of radiation exposure and logistic issues their use is generally restricted to research protocols thus there is still need for cheaper and more user friendly techniques.…”

Author response to Letter to the Editor: MRI‐defined sarcopenia predicts mortality in patients with chronic liver disease

“…We would like to thank Dr. Jin et al for their interest in our article 1 and for sharing their thoughts on our study.…”

“…3 Finally, Jin et al correctly highlight the intersection between the two survival curves of patients with dACLD ( fig. 3B) 1 . Indeed, a restricted mean survival time (RMST) analysis could have been used to analyse the data in a different way.…”

MRI‐defined sarcopenia predicts mortality in patients with chronic liver disease

“…We read with interest the study by Beer et al 1 where the authors explored the association between sarcopenia defined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the mortality in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). The final conclusions presented that sarcopenia defined by MRI is an important risk factor for CLD patients.…”