Sarcopenia in children and adolescents with chronic liver disease

To investigate the occurrence of sarcopenia in children and adolescents with chronic liver disease.

A series of cases, with patients aged 6-19 years of both genders, who were treated in Liver Outpatient Clinics. Weight, height, muscle strength (assessed by manual grip strength), and muscle mass (estimated through dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) were measured. Sarcopenia was diagnosed based on the simultaneous presence of muscle mass and muscle strength déficits, defined as the values below the mean for muscle mass and strength of the studied population, according to gender. A descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation) was performed, and the difference of means was calculated by Student's t-test.

A total of 85 patients were studied, mostly females (64.7%), with a mean age of 11.7 (SD=3.4) years. Sarcopenia was identified in 40% of the patients. Muscle strength déficit was found in 54.1% of the subjects, and 50.6% showed muscle mass déficit. The mean muscle mass for males was higher than that for females (6.07; SD=1.22kg/m²vs. 5.42; SD=1.10kg/m²; p=0.016). However, there was no significant difference in sex-related muscle strength (male=0.85; SD=0.52kgf/kgm² and female=0.68; SD=0.30kgf/kgm²; p=0.113).

The research findings identified that sarcopenia is a condition found in pediatric patients treated at a public referral institution for chronic liver disease.