No abstract

Background: Sarcopenia in cirrhotic patients has a serious effect on their outcome. Although several modalities are used for diagnosing sarcopenia by measuring skeletal muscle mass, they are expensive and may not be available. The objective of the present study is to assess the utility of gait speed for diagnosing sarcopenia in cirrhosis as compared with computed tomography skeletal muscle index (CT-SMI). Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study recruited 331 adult patients with hepatitis C-related cirrhosis. Clinical assessment, gait speed, and CT-SMI in the third lumbar vertebra were determined. Sarcopenia was defined when CT-SMI < 52.4 cm2/m2 in men and when < 38.5 cm 2 /m 2 in women. Diagnostic performance of gait speed at a cut-off value <0.8 m/s for diagnosing sarcopenia in cirrhosis was assessed. Results: Sarcopenia by CT-SMI was detected in 52.6% of patients. A significant correlation was found between CT-SMI and gait speed with slightly higher in women. Using the existing cut-off value of gait speed lower than 0.8 m/s, we detected sarcopenia in 146 (44.1%) patients, and when compared with CT-SMI for diagnosing sarcopenia, the specificity, sensitivity and overall accuracy were 91.7%, 84.5%, and 87.9%, respectively. Better performance was observed in women; 82.5% sensitivity, 96.1% specificity and 91.4% accuracy. Conclusion: Gait speed could be used as a marker of sarcopenia for cirrhotic patients in areas where modalities of diagnosing skeletal muscle index are deficient. Although gait speed is not the only method for diagnosing sarcopenia, it has the potential to be a helpful clinical tool for identifying sarcopenic patients.