Sarcopenia in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the frequency of sarcopenia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in the Control group, and to compare the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), handgrip strength (HGS) measured by a dynamometer, pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters, and bioimpedance analysis (BIA) parameters among the COPD GOLD A, B, and E subgroups. Study Design: Cohort study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Pulmonary Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University, Totak, Turkiye, from February to August 2022. Methodology: Sarcopenia rates were compared between the COPD group and the Control group. Patients diagnosed with COPD according to the GOLD 2022 criteria by pulmonologists were included in the COPD group. Volunteers without any neuromuscular and pulmonary disease were included in the Control group. Results: The study included 43 patients with COPD and 40 volunteers without respiratory disease. The incidence rate of sarcopenia was found to be 39.5% in the COPD group. Group E patients had the highest rate of sarcopenia (70%). It was found that the COPD group had lower HGS, as measured by dynamometer, and age and gender-corrected HGS measurements compared with the Control group (p = 0.019 and p = 0.005, respectively). Conclusion: Sarcopenia was found to be higher in the COPD group compared to the Control group. The highest rate was observed in Group E. Sarcopenia should definitely be taken into consideration in the follow-up of COPD patients, and treatment of sarcopenia (nutritional supplement, exercise, and pulmonary rehabilitation etc.) should be evaluated in those patients.