#2080 Prevalence and development of sarcopenia in chronic hemodialysis patients, a single center, prospective, observational study

Abstract

Abstract Background and Aims Sarcopenia is a progressive muscle disease (muscle failure) associated with age and various factors including chronic kidney disease that increases the risk of falls, fractures, and mortality. We aimed to analyze the prevalence of sarcopenia and other related problems, such as nutrition or physical fitness, in a group of patients in a chronic dialysis program. Method In our dialysis center, we conducted a prospective observational study to monitor the prevalence and development of sarcopenia. We performed repeated SARC-F (simple five-item questionnaire), grip strength, bioimpedance analysis of body composition, short physical performance battery (SPPB), muscle sonography and MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment) in chronic hemodialysis patients. Here we report the cross-sectional results of the prevalence of probable sarcopenia (according to the recommendations, enough to trigger assessment of causes and start intervention) defined by EWGSOP2 (the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People), risk of malnutrition, physical fitness, and its development in 1 year follow up. Results The median age in our cohort was 64 years (IQR 16.5). We examined 58 patients (36 men and 22 women) who signed informed consent in the period from 1 October 2020 to 31 January 2023. The prevalence of probable sarcopenia was 20.7%. A higher prevalence was observed in women than in men (27.3% vs 16.7%, P = 0.505), in patients ≥65 years than in the <65 years (26.5% vs 8.3%, P = 0.102) and in the group of patients more than one year on dialysis compared to the group up to one year (27.8% vs 4.5%, P = 0.039). We observed reduced physical performance (SPPB test) in 20 subjects (34.5%) and risk of malnutrition according to MNA in 33 subjects (56.9%). Seven of 29 evaluated patients (24.1%) had a worsening of physical performance (SPPB) after one year. Ten out of 29 patients (34.5%) had worsened MNA scores; the prevalence of malnutrition risk in this group remained the same (51.7%). The development of other parameters did not lead to significant conclusions, given the heterogeneity of characteristics and the relatively small number of subjects. Conclusion Sarcopenia is a serious and potentially impactful problem. The prevalence of probable sarcopenia in our cohort was 20.7% and was higher, although not statistically significant, in women, in patients ≥65 years of age and in patients more than one year on dialysis.