AsianScientist (May 27, 2016) – Researchers from Kumamoto University in Japan have shown that a simple screening method could quickly and easily diagnose the severity of heart disease. The method was originally developed to diagnose sarcopenia, a disease that causes a loss of muscle mass and strength. They published their findings in the International Journal of Cardiology.
Sarcopenia is the gradual loss of muscle mass. People naturally have varying degrees of muscle mass and strength loss as they age, but a large loss can be especially bad for patients of cancer or heart disease. The reasons for the exacerbated pathology of cancer or heart disease when combined with sarcopenia are not yet clear.
The pathogenesis of sarcopenia, particularly in elderly patients, should be assessed carefully. In the past, tests were often difficult to perform since muscle mass measurements were taken with CT or MRI examinations. These types of analyses were expensive, and not all medical institutions carried such large-scale equipment. The examination of sarcopenia in daily clinical practice was therefore often difficult.
In the present study, the research team developed a simple sarcopenia screening test which allows for a quick and easy evaluation of the disease. This test calculates a patient’s ‘sarcopenia score’ by using their age, grip strength and calf circumference. Importantly, it doesn’t require the use of expensive equipment, or take up a significant amount of time.
Determine if this screening test was also effective at evaluating patients with heart failure, the research team performed a study on 119 patients in the university hospital. The team calculated sarcopenia scores prior to discharge and compared the scores to laboratory data, echocardiography, and the patient’s prognosis over a 750-day period.
The results showed that higher sarcopenia scores were related to higher levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), a hormone that indicates how well the heart is working; and to the left ventricular ejection fraction, which indicates how well the heart pumps blood during ventricular contraction. Continued examination of each patient’s progress, re-hospitalization and mortality due to heart failure found that patients with higher sarcopenia scores were at a higher risk of heart failure.
An evaluation of BNP levels is useful to predict the prognosis of heart failure patients, and the predictive capabilities of the BNP assessment can be further improved if it is coupled with a patient’s sarcopenia score.
As society ages, tests such as these could prove useful in assessing patients with heart disease and muscle-wasting diseases such as chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The article can be found at: Onoue et al. (2016) A Simple Sarcopenia Screening Test Predicts Future Adverse Events in Patients with Heart Failure.
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Source: Kumamoto University; Photo: Shutterstock.
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