Muscle function and quality of life in the Crohn’s disease

Abstract

Introduction: Crohn’s disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease, marked by exacerbations and remissions periods. Peripheral manifestations in CD may be present with the syndrome of skeletal muscle dysfunction (SMD), which is characterized by loss of muscle strength, fatigue complain, limited exercise capacity and impaired quality of life of these patients. Objective: Evaluate muscle strength, physical capacity and quality of life of patients with CD and compare them with healthy controls. Methods: 18 patients CD and 12 healthy controls matched for age and sex were involved. Peripheral muscle strength evaluated by handgrip strength of the dominant hand and respiratory muscle strength by measures of respiratory muscle strength (maximal inspiratory/expiratory pressure - MIP and MEP). Exercise capacity evaluated by Shuttle test (ST) and the quality of life by the Short-form 36 (SF-36) and by the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). Results: Patients with CD presented a lower respiratory muscle strength (MIP = -68.93 ± 26.61 vs 29.63 ± -100 cmH2O, p = 0.0013 and MEP = 81.07 ± 30.26 vs 108 ± 25.30 cmH2O, p = 0.032) and a tendency the lower peripheral muscle strength (31.72 ± 8.55 vs 39.00 ± 13.37 kgf, p = 0.09). In addition, CD patients presented worse physical capacity on the ST compared to the control group (513.7 ± 237m vs 983.0 ± 263m, p < 0.05) and worse quality of life in 7 of 8 domains of the SF-36 and in all dimensions of the IBDQ. Conclusion: Patients with CD showed muscle functional impairment and poorer quality of life compared to healthy control group. These findings suggest that the assessment and maybe interventions in the muscle function must be used in clinical practice.

Physical Activity in Daily Life, Exercise Capacity and Quality of Life in Patients With Crohn’s Disease on Infliximab-Induced Remission: A Preliminary Study

“…A recent article from our group showed muscle functional impairment and poorer quality of life in patients with CD compared to healthy controls (28) . However, the control group consisted of healthy volunteers and the CD group was formed by patients in the active phase of the disease, different from the present study.…”

Role of Obesity, Mesenteric Adipose Tissue, and Adipokines in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

“…In many patients with IBD and particularly with CD, the body composition, reflected by as proportions of bone, fat, and lean body mass may be abnormal. Sarcopenia, defined as depletion of muscle mass and impaired muscle function [65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], is an important feature in this disease [70][71][72]81]. Depletion of lean body mass and loss of muscle strength associated with lower QoL and higher mortality and morbidity commonly occurs as part of the aging process [65,77].…”

“…Recently, a number of reports about the increasing rates of sarcopenia in patients with IBD, especially in patients with CD were observed [69,78]. Such sarcopenia in IBD patients is associated with an increased risk of surgery, poor surgical outcomes, lower QoL, osteopenia, and easy fatigue [66,67,[70][71][72][73][74]77,80]. The unchanged or elevated BMI was observed in IBD patients who suffered with loss of muscle mass, followed by muscle impaired function [68,[70][71][72].…”

Skeletal Muscle Neurovascular Coupling, Oxidative Capacity, and Microvascular Function with 'One Stop Shop' Near-infrared Spectroscopy

“…Among the major determinates of oxygen utilization, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation plays an essential role in supplying adequate energy for cellular processes both at rest and during exercise. Indeed, impairments in muscle oxidative capacity can limit functional capacity and quality of life 14,15,16 . Various measures are commonly used to provide an index of muscle oxidative capacity, including invasive muscle biopsies and expensive and time-consuming magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques.…”