Prognostic role of sarcopenia in heart failure patients

Sarcopenia is common in heart failure (HF) patients; however, there are no data regarding the possible long-term prognostic role of sarcopenia in younger adults with chronic HF without malnutrition. The aim of this study was to examine the long-term prognostic role of sarcopenia in predicting major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in outpatients with chronic HF.

In the present retrospective analysis, 670 subjects with HF were enrolled. MACE (non-fatal ischemic stroke, non-fatal myocardial infarction, cardiac revascularization or coronary bypass surgery, and cardiovascular death) and total mortality occurrence were evaluated during a mean follow-up of 4.7 years.

In the entire population, 340 patients were sarcopenic and 330 were not sarcopenic. In patients without sarcopenia, the observed MACE were 2.1 events/100 patient-year; while in the sarcopenic group there were 13.3 events/100 patient-year (p < 0.001). The multivariate analysis model confirmed that sarcopenia increase the risk of MACE by a factor of 8.6. Patients with sarcopenia had also a higher incidence of total mortality (p < 0.001) than patients without sarcopenia.

Patients with chronic HF that suffered from sarcopenia show a higher risk of MACE and total mortality, independently by their chronological age.