Survival and CT defined sarcopenia in patients with intestinal failure on home parenteral support. Issue 3 (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Oke, Siddhartha M.; Rye, Beth; Malietzis, George; Baldwin-Cleland, Rachel; Bottle, Alex; Gabe, Simon M.; Lung, Phillip F.C.
• Is Part Of: Clinical nutrition. Volume 39:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 829
• Page End: 836
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: Intestinal failure -- Sarcopenia -- L3 skeletal muscle index -- Survival -- CT; Critically ill -- Nutrition -- Periodicals; Diet therapy -- Periodicals; Parenteral feeding -- Periodicals; Enteral feeding -- Periodicals; Enteral Nutrition -- Periodicals; Parenteral Nutrition -- Periodicals; Metabolism -- Periodicals; Diétothérapie -- Périodiques; Alimentation parentérale -- Périodiques; Alimentation entérale -- Périodiques; Nutrition -- Périodiques; Diet therapy; Enteral feeding; Nutrition; Parenteral feeding; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 615.854
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2019.03.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0261-5614

Abstract

Summary: Background & aims: Sarcopenia occurs in patients with intestinal failure (IF) and has been associated with poorer survival in several chronic diseases. CT can measure sarcopenia through a L3 skeletal muscle index (LSMI). We aim to describe the prevalence of sarcopenia in a section of our IF population using LSMI, & evaluate the effect of home parenteral support (PS) on LSMI & survival. Additionally, we aim to assess any association between LSMI, BMI & other anthropometric measurements. Methods: IF patients on PS treated at St Mark's Hospital between 1/1/2006-1/10/2016 were identified from a prospectively maintained database. Patients were included if they were on PS & had 2 CTs: the first ≤30 days before start of HPN (pre-PS); the second ≥100 days from PS start (post-PS). Patient records were reviewed to obtain clinical & demographic information & date of death. Anthropometric measurements & BMI contemporaneous to CT scans were recorded. Results: 64 patients met inclusion criteria (M:F 1:1). 83% of our cohort had LSMI below previously published thresholds for sarcopenia. Mean (SD) pre-PS LSMI was 36.5 (6.8)cm 2 /m 2 . Mean BMI pre-PS was 22.1 (4.8) kg/m 2 . Both BMI (22.1 kg/m 2 to 23.5 kg/m 2 ) p < 0.001) & LSMI (36.5 cm 2 /m 2 to 38.4 cm 2 /m 2 ) (p = 0.003) increased post-PS. A positive correlation was seen between BMI & LSMI pre (r = 0.47 p < 0.001) & post-PS (r = 0.37 p = 0.003). No correlation was seen between LSMI & anthropometric measurements pre-PS (p = 0.78) or post-PS (p = 0.96). 11 (17%) patients died during the study period; a low LSMI pre-PS was not a risk factor for mortality (HR 0.97 p = 0.55). Conclusions: This study is the first to look at sarcopenia & survival using CT defined LSMI (CT-LSMI) in the IF population. 83% of our cohort had a pre-PS LSMI below previously published thresholds, yet we found no relationship between lower baseline LSMI & survival. This may reflect the heterogeneity of the prognoses of the IF population, or that parenteral nutrition itself affects survival. Our study showed that LSMI & BMI improved following PS but demonstrated that other anthropometric measurements had poor correlation with LSMI & showed no significant improvement overall after PS, confirming the known problems of inter-operator & patient variability of these measurements. Whilst we found significant correlation between LSMI & BMI, BMI significantly underestimated the presence & degree of sarcopenia. LSMI has the potential to provide an objective & reproducible measure of sarcopenia in IF. Future larger studies should be performed to evaluate associations with patient outcomes & utility in clinical decision making.