Sarcopenia Diagnosis: Reliability of the Ultrasound Assessment of the Tibialis Anterior Muscle as an Alternative Evaluation Tool

Abstract

Sarcopenia is a skeletal muscle disorder characterized by reduced muscle mass, strength, and performance. Muscle ultrasound can be helpful in assessing muscle mass, quality, and architecture, and thus possibly useful for diagnosing or screening sarcopenia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of ultrasound assessment of tibialis anterior muscle in sarcopenia diagnosis. We included subjects undergoing total or partial hip replacement, comparing measures with a healthy control group. We measured the following parameters: tibialis anterior muscle thickness, echogenicity, architecture, stiffness, skeletal muscle index (SMI), hand grip strength, and sarcopenia related quality of life evaluated through the SarQoL questionnaire. We included 33 participants with a mean age of 54.97 ± 23.91 years. In the study group we found reduced tibialis anterior muscle thickness compared to the healthy control group (19.49 ± 4.92 vs. 28.94 ± 3.63 mm, p < 0.05) with significant correlation with SarQoL values (r = 0.80, p < 0.05), dynamometer hand strength (r = 0.72, p < 0.05) and SMI (r = 0.76, p < 0.05). Moreover, we found reduced stiffness (32.21 ± 12.31 vs. 27.07 ± 8.04 Kpa, p < 0.05). AUC measures of ROC curves were 0.89 predicting reduced muscle strength, and 0.97 predicting reduced SMI for tibialis anterior muscle thickness, while they were 0.73 and 0.85, respectively, for muscle stiffness. Our findings showed that ultrasound assessment of tibialis anterior muscle might be considered a reliable measurement tool to evaluate sarcopenia.

Molecular Mechanisms of Inflammation in Sarcopenia: Diagnosis and Therapeutic Update

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Sarcopenic Dysphagia, Malnutrition, and Oral Frailty in Elderly: A Comprehensive Review

“…Life courses of health and functional status in older people are related to their genetics and environmental backgrounds, as well as other physical and psychological factors [ 4 ]. Indeed, a common feature in elderly subjects is the progressive decline in several physiological functions, which might lead to an increased risk of sarcopenia, dysphagia, osteoporosis, and frailty [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Establishment and Validation of Pre-Therapy Cervical Vertebrae Muscle Quantification as a Prognostic Marker of Sarcopenia in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

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