Campani F, Li Cavoli TV, Arena U, Marra F, Lynch EN, Campani C. Quick and easy assessment of sarcopenia in cirrhosis: Can ultrasound be the solution? World J Gastroenterol 2024; 30(17): 2287-2293 [PMID: 38813055 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i17.2287]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Claudia Campani, MD, PhD, Academic Fellow, Doctor, Research Fellow, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence 50134, Italy. claudiacampani.cc@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Francesca Campani, Department of Health Science, University Hospital Careggi, University of Florence, Florence 50134, Italy
Tancredi Vincenzo Li Cavoli, Umberto Arena, Fabio Marra, Claudia Campani, Internal Medicine and Liver Unit, University Hospital Careggi, University of Florence, Florence 50134, Italy
Fabio Marra, Claudia Campani, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence 50134, Italy
Erica Nicola Lynch, Gastroenterology Research Unit, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences “Mario Serio”, University of Florence, Florence 50134, Italy
Erica Nicola Lynch, Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
Author contributions: Campani F performed the bibliographic search; Campani F and Li Cavoli TV drafted the initial manuscript; Lynch EN and Campani C re-screened the search results; Lynch EN provided English language revision as a native speaker; Arena U, Marra F, Lynch EN, and Campani C revised the article critically for important intellectual content; and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Claudia Campani, MD, PhD, Academic Fellow, Doctor, Research Fellow, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence 50134, Italy. claudiacampani.cc@gmail.com
Received: January 30, 2024 Revised: March 16, 2024 Accepted: April 15, 2024 Published online: May 7, 2024 Processing time: 95 Days and 11.8 Hours
Abstract
Cirrhosis is frequently associated with sarcopenia, with reported rates of over 80% in patients with decompensated alcohol-related liver disease. Sarcopenia negatively impacts the prognosis of cirrhotic patients and affects the response to treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). For these reasons, identifying an easy-to-perform method to assess sarcopenia in is a key element in the optimization of care in this patient population. Assessment of muscle mass by computed tomography is considered the standard of care for the diagnosis of sarcopenia, but exposure to radiation and high costs limit its application in this setting, especially for repeated assessments. We believe that ultrasound, a cheap and harmless technique also used for HCC screening in cirrhotic patients, could have an expanding role in the diagnosis and follow-up of sarcopenia in these patients.
Core Tip: Cirrhosis is frequently associated with sarcopenia, which negatively impacts the prognosis of cirrhotic patients and affects the response to treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). For these reasons, identifying an easy-to-perform method to assess sarcopenia in is a key element in the optimization of care in this patient population. We believe that ultrasound, a cheap and harmless technique also used for HCC screening in cirrhotic patients, could have an expanding role in the diagnosis and follow-up of sarcopenia in these patients.
