Sarcopenia Is Independently Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in Older Korean Adults: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) from 2009

Abstract

BackgroundThe association between sarcopenia and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in elderly people has not been adequately assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CVD is more prevalent in subjects with sarcopenia independent of other well-established cardiovascular risk factors in older Korean adults.MethodThis study utilized the representative Korean population data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) which was conducted in 2009. Subjects older than 65 years of age with appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry were selected. The prevalence of sarcopenia in the older Korean adults was investigated, and it was determined whether sarcopenia is associated with CVD independent of other well-known risk factors.Results1,578 subjects aged 65 years and older with the data for ASM were selected, and the overall prevalence of sarcopenia was 30.3% in men and 29.3% in women. Most of the risk factors for CVD such as age, waist circumference, body mass index, fasting plasma glucose and total cholesterol showed significant negative correlations with the ratio between appendicular skeletal muscle mass and body weight. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that sarcopenia was associated with CVD independent of other well-documented risk factors, renal function and medications (OR, 1.768; 95% CI, 1.075–2.909, P = 0.025).ConclusionsSarcopenia was associated with the presence of CVD independent of other cardiovascular risk factors after adjusting renal function and medications.

Relationship Between Low Relative Muscle Mass and Coronary Artery Calcification in Healthy Adults

“…11,15 Moreover, low relative muscle mass, assessed by SMI, was associated with an increased cardiovascular risk in a Korean population. 7,16 A cross-sectional study in Japan showed that low relative muscle mass was related to greater arterial stiffness in women, 13 which supports the possibility that a common pathway may exist between low muscle mass and atherosclerosis. Insulin resistance may explain the association between them as an intermediate or a confounder and has been investigated in several studies.…”

Association between sarcopenic obesity and cardiovascular risk: where are we?

“…After adjusting for confounding factors the group with SO showed a higher chance of dyslipidemia (OR, 2.82; 95% CI, 1.76-4.51) regardless of sex (15). Many cross-sectional studies in the Korean population, especially in elderly subjects (7,10,14,43,44), but also in adults (11,12,45), showed that SO was associated with changes in the lipid profile characterized by elevated levels of triglycerides (TGL) (7,10,14,22,(43)(44)(45), total cholesterol (TC) (22) and reduction of the high density lipoprotein (HDL) (10,11). They used as criterion for diagnosis of sarcopenia, ASM adjusted for body mass and for obesity, BMI > 25 kg/m 2 , the visceral fat area (VFA) by computed tomography (CT) or waist circumference (WC).…”

“…The association between SO and insulin resistance was described, only in women (11), male (12) or in the both sexes (3,7,9,14,15,43,44). All these studies used HOMA-IR (homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance) to investigated insulin resistance, but different methodologies were used to evaluate sarcopenia: ASM adjusted for body mass (7,11,12,14,15,43,44) or height (9), muscular area in the thigh/visceral fat (3) and the MM index (DEXA) (11) and BMI (12,14,15,43,44), VFA (3,7,11) and WC (9) for evaluate obesity. Individuals with SO showed a higher HOMA-IR when compared to others who were obese, sarcopenic or normal individuals (3,7,9,11,12,14,15,43,44).…”

Role of Sarcopenia in Diabetes Mellitus

“…또한 근감소증 그 자체가 신체 활동을 줄이고 체내 기초대사량 감소를 유발하여 체지방 증가의 원인이 될 수 있다 [22]. 이러한 인슐린 저항성 증가, 및 체지방 증가는 제2형 당뇨병 이외에도 심혈관질환 등 치명적 합병증 발생의 원인이 될 수 있다 [23].…”