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World J Rheumatol. Feb 20, 2019; 9(1): 1-8
Published online Feb 20, 2019. doi: 10.5499/wjr.v9.i1.1
Association between sarcopenia and rheumatological diseases
Murat Korkmaz, Sibel Eyigor
Murat Korkmaz, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Afyon Saglik Bilimleri University, Afyonkarahisar 03000, Turkey
Sibel Eyigor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir 35100, Turkey
Author contributions: Korkmaz M performed the majority of the writing, designed the outline and coordinated the writing of the paper; Eyigor S performed data assessment and provided input for writing of the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
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 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/
Corresponding author: Sibel Eyigor, MD, Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir 35100, Turkey. eyigor@hotmail.com
Telephone: +90-232-3903687 Fax: +90-232-3881953
Received: September 18, 2018
Peer-review started: September 18, 2018
First decision: November 5, 2018
Revised: November 12, 2018
Accepted: January 5, 2019
Article in press: January 5, 2019
Published online: February 20, 2019
Processing time: 150 Days and 19.2 Hours
Abstract

Sarcopenia (“sarx” for muscle, “penia” for loss) is an important problem in the elderly. Although muscle loss is a part of natural aging, excessive loss that limits physical activity is considered pathological. Sarcopenia is associated with age, malnutrition, physical inactivity, inflammatory stress and hormonal changes. Although relationships between sarcopenia and various chronic inflammatory diseases have been shown, the role of rheumatologic disease in sarcopenia development is currently unknown. Our aim in this mini-review was to increase the awareness of clinicians to sarcopenia, and to evaluate studies in which the relationship between sarcopenia and rheumatologic diseases was investigated. We also aimed to determine whether the available literature was sufficient to confirm a strong relationship between these conditions. Although our findings showed that diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and systemic sclerosis may have a role in sarcopenia development and progress, the methodologies and results of the majority of studies were insufficient in determining direct causal relationships. We believe future studies would benefit from focusing on the factors and causes of sarcopenia, with a goal of determining the factors associated with rheumatologic disease that are most effective in sarcopenia development.

Keywords: Sarcopenia; Rheumatoid arthritis; Osteoarthritis; Rheumatologic diseases; Malnutrition; Chronic inflammatory diseases

Core tip: Although relationships between sarcopenia and various chronic inflammatory diseases have been shown, the role of rheumatologic disease in sarcopenia development is currently unknown. Our aim in this mini-review was to increase the awareness of clinicians to sarcopenia, and to evaluate studies in which the relationship between sarcopenia and rheumatologic diseases was investigated. As stated many times, the literature on this topic is quite limited; however, available data may be sufficient to associate sarcopenia with chronic inflammatory diseases.