Pleural carnal attrition: Sarcopenia and protein catabolism in malignant pleural effusion

Abstract

Background: Pleural malignancies disturb normal ways of protein metabolism deferring imbalance of backside markers in body tissues and fluids and see the sights of muscle and protein derangement. Purpose: The aim of this work to study markers of protein depletion and muscle catabolism in cases with malignant pleural effusion. Patients and methods: Thirty patients with malignant pleural effusions not under chemotherapy were studied regarding markers of muscle and protein derangement (plasma albumin & potassium levels and creatinine height index) and radiological signs (the presence of pleural thickness by computed tomography (CT) of chest and muscle wasting by skeletal muscle ultrasound) plus thoracoscopic findings (plaques and adhesions). Results: Metastatic adenocarcinoma accounted for a higher percentage in smoking 66%, aging (59.06 ± 13.04) and duration of illness (13.13 ± 4.85) than other pleural malignancies. In the same way metastatic adenocarcinoma showed the major type in hypoalbuminemia, hypokalemia and CT pleural thickening than other malignancies (11.11%, 72.22% and 77.76% in that order). However, malignant lymphoma was prevalent in echographic features of muscle wasting, pleural plaques and pleural adhesions (66.7% for each marker). Lastly, squamous cell carcinoma prevailed in creatinine highest index than the previous three tumors (75%). Nevertheless, there were no statistical significant differences between the four diagnosed malignancies except for pleural plaques that were significant (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Pleural malignancy can enhance the body decomposition in particular muscular components and hastens protein catabolism with the help of feasible laboratory and radiological markers.

Keywords

• Sarcopenia
• Hypoalbuminemia
• Muscle ultrasound
• Lymphoma
• Mesothelioma
• Adenocarcinoma