Sarcopenia in Neurological Patients: Standard Values for Temporal Muscle Thickness and Muscle Strength Evaluation

Abstract

Temporal muscle thickness (TMT) was investigated as a novel surrogate marker on MRI examinations of the brain, to detect patients who may be at risk for sarcopenia. TMT was analyzed in a retrospective, normal collective cohort (n = 624), to establish standard reference values. These reference values were correlated with grip strength measurements and body mass index (BMI) in 422 healthy volunteers and validated in a prospective cohort (n = 130) of patients with various neurological disorders. Pearson correlation revealed a strong association between TMT and grip strength (retrospective cohort, ρ = 0.746; p < 0.001; prospective cohort, ρ = 0.649; p < 0.001). A low or no association was found between TMT and age (retrospective cohort, R2 correlation coefficient 0.20; p < 0.001; prospective cohort, ρ = −0.199; p = 0.023), or BMI (retrospective cohort, ρ = 0.116; p = 0.042; prospective cohort, ρ = 0.227; p = 0.009), respectively. Male patients with temporal wasting and unintended weight loss, respectively, showed significantly lower TMT values (p = 0.04 and p = 0.015, unpaired t-test). TMT showed a high correlation with muscle strength in healthy individuals and in patients with various neurological disorders. Therefore, TMT should be integrated into the diagnostic workup of neurological patients, to prevent, delay, or treat sarcopenia.

Evaluation of the Temporal Muscle Thickness as an Independent Prognostic Biomarker in Patients with Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma

“…The patients in this study were stratified according to sex-related TMT cutoff values published previously [ 18 ]. Those sex related cutoff values were set 2.5 SD below the normative references (defined as healthy adults between 18–40 years old) as determined by the updated European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) recommendations [ 23 ].…”

“…This makes the TMT assessment a suitable tool for the estimation of skeletal muscle mass and function that could be easily included in the routine clinical workflow. Moreover, previous studies could reveal an excellent inter-rater (same subject–same scanner–different reader) and intra-rater (same subject–same scanner–same reader) agreement (ICC > 0.9) each [ 15 , 18 ]. To ensure a high measurement accuracy the usage of isovoxel T1-weighted images is of utmost importance to reduce the partial volume effect.…”

“…However, recently, temporal muscle thickness (TMT) has been suggested as a new biomarker with which to determine frailty, as it highly correlates with skeletal muscle mass as assessed by the use of calf circumference, arm muscle circumference, and the lumbar skeletal muscle cross-sectional area [ 16 , 17 ]. Moreover, TMT showed a high correlation with the grip strength of the dominant hand in healthy volunteers, as well as in patients with various neurological diseases [ 18 ]. These studies indicate that the estimation of skeletal muscle mass is not limited to lumbar muscles, but can also be determined on craniofacial muscles.…”

Easily created prediction model using deep learning software (Prediction One, Sony Network Communications Inc.) for subarachnoid hemorrhage outcomes from small dataset at admission

“…We determined the location (anterior cerebral artery, anterior communicating artery, internal carotid artery, middle cerebral artery, posterior cerebral artery, basilar artery, vertebral artery, or undetermined due to severe neurological status treated by conservative therapy as well as diffuse SAH with multiple aneurysms which we could not be judged as ruptured) and size (mm) of the aneurysm, Fisher CT scale,[ 5 ] temporal muscle thickness (mm), and area (mm 2 ) as an indicator of systemic skeletal muscle mass[ 8 - 10 , 22 - 24 , 26 , 43 ] based on the results of the CT or CT angiography at admission. We used the Aquilion ONE (Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Tochigi, Japan) to take CT and CT angiography images of 0.5 × 0.5 × 1.0 mm voxels.…”

The dataset on the characteristics of the intracerebral hemorrhage patients treated by endoscopic hematoma removal or craniotomy

“… This data can be used as a reference value for neurosurgeons when they treat their ICH patients. The data of temporal muscle thickness/area of the ICH patients can be used to compare healthy patients to investigate the meaning of temporal muscle, focusing on nutrition [ 8 , 9 ] and sarcopenia [10] . …”