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Updated: Jul 16, 2025

3D Ultrasound Imaging: Fast and Cost-effective Morphometry of Musculoskeletal Tissue
Published on: November 27, 2017
Psoas muscle quantified muscle status and long-term mortality after cardiovascular interventions
Otto Järvinen1,2, Juho T Tynkkynen3, Marko Virtanen4
1Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Results:
In the meta-analysis, psoas muscle measurements were significantly associated with mortality among men (p < 0.05), with high heterogeneity in the associations across all cohorts. There was very little difference in the association between PMA and PMD and mortality (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.69-0.99, p = 0.002; HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.77-0.94, p = 0.041 for one SD increase in PMA and PMD in the random effects model). Combining PMA and PMD into one composite variable by multiplying their values together showed the most robust association in terms of the magnitude of the effect size in men (HR, 0.77; 95% CI 0.73-0.87, p < 0.001). Indexing PMA to body size did not result in any significant differences in this association. Among women, psoas muscle measurements were not associated with long-term mortality in this meta-analysis.
Conclusions:
Different psoas muscle measurements were significantly and very similarly associated with mortality among men but not among women. No single measurement stands out, although combining PMA and PMD seems to be a slightly stronger estimate in terms of effect size and should be considered in further studies.

