Estimación de la prevalencia de la sarcopenia mediante diversos instrumentos de evaluación

C. Beaudart, J.Y. Reginster, J. Slomian, F. Buckinx, N. Dardenne, A. Quabron, C. Slangen, S. Gillain, J. Petermans, O. Bruyère

Experimental Gerontology. 2015;61:31-7

This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of sarcopenia in relation to the assessment tool used in the measurement of the variables related to muscle mass, muscle strength and physical performance.

The research took place in Belgium and involved 250 outpatients aged 65 years and over. For the measurement of each variable two different measuring methods were used. For muscle mass, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and the X-ray absorptiometry dual energy (DXA) were used, for muscle strength the hydraulic dynamometer and the pneumatic one were used, finally, for the evaluation of physical performance the Short Physical Performance battery (SPPB) and walking speed were adopted.

The results showed that the prevalence of sarcopenia varies between 8.4% and 27.6% in relation to the method used. Furthermore, it was observed that BIA tends to overestimate muscle mass compared to DXA. As regards the muscle strength, the pneumatic dynamometer allowed to diagnose double of the sarcopenic subjects compared to hydraulic dynamometer. Finally, the prevalence of sarcopenia was not different when walking speed or the SPPB were used.

Patients diagnosed to have sarcopenia using different tools were different in several clinical characteristics, including age, gender, BMI, anthropometric parameters, cognitive functions and nutritional status.

In conclusion, this study showed that the prevalence of sarcopenia is highly dependent on the assessment tools adopted.

Comment: The prevalence of sarcopenia depends from the diagnostic tool used to measure muscle mass and muscle strength. Important differences in the measure of prevalence of sarcopenia were observed when BIA or DXA were used. This suggests that a pondered formula should be developed for each type of bio-electrical impedance analysis device. For muscle strength analysis, the use of pneumatic or hydraulic dynamometer gave discordant sarcopenia prevalence. Future researches are needed to identify the most appropriate dynamometer to use.

The identification of the most suitable tools for the diagnosis of sarcopenia may therefore be of great interest.