Ultrasound Assessment of Sarcopenia in Alcoholic Liver Disease

Malnutrition frequently affects patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD), with important impacts on disease prognosis. Sarcopenia, the clinical phenotype of malnutrition characterized by skeletal muscle loss, is the major component responsible for adverse events in this population. The aim of this study is to assess the use of ultrasound (US) skeletal muscle performance in stratifying ALD disease severity. We recruited 43 patients with ALD and divided them into two groups: alcoholic hepatitis (AH) and alcoholic cirrhosis (AC). We evaluated disease-specific clinical and biological parameters and their relation to US Rectus Femoris muscle (RFM) measurements, including RFM thickness, stiffness (RFMS) and echogenicity (RFE). A thirty-seconds chairs stand test (30sCST) was used as the sarcopenia surrogate test. RMF thickness correlated with platelet count and serum albumin (p < 0.001). Both RFM and RFMS correlated with disease severity (p < 0.001) and 30sCST (p < 0.001, p = 0.002). Patients with AH had more severe US muscle abnormalities compared to AC (RFMS 1.78 m/s vs. 1.35 m/s, p = 0.001) and the highest prevalence of RFE (χ² = 8.652, p = 0.003). Rectus Femoris US assessment could represent a reliable tool in the diagnosis and severity stratification of ALD-induced sarcopenia.