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Background Malnutrition is an overlooked complication of liver cirrhosis. Sarcopenia, a marker of malnutrition, is an independent prognostic factor for mortality in liver cirrhosis.We aimed to evaluate psoas muscle thickness divided by height (PMTH) as a measure for the degree of sarcopenia and determine its correlation with the clinical outcomes. Methods Sixty-five liver cirrhosis patients with available abdominal CT scan were reviewed in this retrospective cohort study. PMTH were measured and correlated with clinical parameters and outcomes. The diagnostic performance for predicting long-term mortality of PMTH, Child-Pugh, MELD and MELD-Na score was determined by calculating the area under the receiver-operating curve (AUROC) and cut-off values were derived. Event rate of specific complications was analyzed using the cut-off. Kaplan Meier with a log-rank test was used to compare survival rates in the low PMTH vs. high PMTH group. Cox regression analysis was used to determine the variables predictive of mortality. Results There was no significant difference among the PMTH values between cirrhotic patients without HCCA and with HCCA (p=0.652). BMI showed a significant correlation to PMTH with p=0.001 (r=0.415). A weak negative correlation was noted between liver-related complications and PMTH. The best cut-off value of PMTH to predict 6-month mortality was derived at 13.45 mm/m. Low PMTH was significantly predictive of the occurrence of SBP with p=0.032. The performance of PMTH in 6-month mortality was not significant (p= 0.517). Kaplan Meier graph revealed that high PMTH group had a higher survival rate (figure 1). The univariate Cox-regression analysis demonstrated that age and lower serum Na were significantly associated with mortality (p=0.005 and p=0.045).

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