Muscle depletion in cirrhotic patients assessed using computed tomography: a cross-sectional study

Sarcopenia is a common complication in patients with cirrhosis and may lead to increased morbidity and mortality.

To investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia and its association with disease severity scores, among patients with cirrhosis.

Observational and retrospective cohort study carried out in a tertiary-care hospital in southern Brazil.

This study was conducted among patients with chronic liver disease who were followed up at the gastroenterology and hepatology outpatient clinic of a tertiary-care hospital in southern Brazil and who underwent computed tomography scans of the abdomen through any indication.

We included 83 patients in the study. In the population evaluated, there was a predominance of males (57.80%) and the mean age was 56 years. Hepatitis B or C virus was present in the genesis of the disease in 34.9% of the cases, followed by an etiology of alcohol abuse (30.1%). Sarcopenia was diagnosed in 41 (49.4%) of the patients when the cutoff point for cirrhotic patients was used. There was no significant correlation between the Child-Pugh and MELD severity scores and the occurrence of sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia presents high prevalence among patients with chronic liver disease, without any association with predictors of severity.