Sarcopenia Diagnosis: Reliability of the Ultrasound Assessment of the Tibialis Anterior Muscle as an Alternative Evaluation Tool
Massimiliano Leigheb,
Alessandro de Sire,
Matteo Colangelo,
Domenico Zagaria,
Federico Alberto Grassi,
Ottavio Rena,
Patrizio Conte,
Pierluigi Neri,
Alessandro Carriero,
Gian Mauro Sacchetti,
Fabio Penna,
Giuseppina Caretti,
Elisabetta Ferraro
Affiliations
Massimiliano Leigheb
Orthopaedics and Traumatology Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Health Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Alessandro de Sire
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Catanzaro “Magna Graecia”, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Matteo Colangelo
Orthopaedics and Traumatology Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Health Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Domenico Zagaria
Radiology Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Translational Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Federico Alberto Grassi
Orthopaedics and Traumatology Unit, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostics and Pediatrics Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Ottavio Rena
Thoracic Surgery Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Health Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Patrizio Conte
Radiology Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Translational Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Pierluigi Neri
Radiology Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Translational Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Alessandro Carriero
Radiology Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, Department of Translational Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Gian Mauro Sacchetti
Nuclear Medicine Unit, “Maggiore della Carità” Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy
Fabio Penna
Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy
Giuseppina Caretti
Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
Elisabetta Ferraro
Cell and Developmental Biology Unit, Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy
Sarcopenia is a skeletal muscle disorder characterized by reduced muscle mass, strength, and performance. Muscle ultrasound can be helpful in assessing muscle mass, quality, and architecture, and thus possibly useful for diagnosing or screening sarcopenia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of ultrasound assessment of tibialis anterior muscle in sarcopenia diagnosis. We included subjects undergoing total or partial hip replacement, comparing measures with a healthy control group. We measured the following parameters: tibialis anterior muscle thickness, echogenicity, architecture, stiffness, skeletal muscle index (SMI), hand grip strength, and sarcopenia related quality of life evaluated through the SarQoL questionnaire. We included 33 participants with a mean age of 54.97 ± 23.91 years. In the study group we found reduced tibialis anterior muscle thickness compared to the healthy control group (19.49 ± 4.92 vs. 28.94 ± 3.63 mm, p p p p p < 0.05). AUC measures of ROC curves were 0.89 predicting reduced muscle strength, and 0.97 predicting reduced SMI for tibialis anterior muscle thickness, while they were 0.73 and 0.85, respectively, for muscle stiffness. Our findings showed that ultrasound assessment of tibialis anterior muscle might be considered a reliable measurement tool to evaluate sarcopenia.
