Heart Failure Study Finds 36% Adverse Muscle Composition in 185 Patients
Updated
Updated · American College of Cardiology · Aug 18
Heart Failure Study Finds 36% Adverse Muscle Composition in 185 Patients
3 articles · Updated · American College of Cardiology · Aug 18
Summary
185 UK Biobank participants with heart failure showed more visceral fat, greater muscle fat infiltration and weaker grip strength than 925 matched controls in a JACC: Heart Failure analysis.
Compared with controls, HF patients had higher VAT z scores (0.46 vs 0.07), higher adverse muscle composition rates (36% vs 17%), lower muscle volume (−0.7 vs −0.1) and weaker grip strength (32.3 vs 34.5 kg).
HF phenotypes differed markedly: HFmrEF had the highest visceral fat and lowest muscle volume, HFpEF had greater fat burden and infiltration, and HFrEF had the highest adverse muscle composition and weakest grip strength.
Sarcopenia prevalence ranged from 17.3% under EWGSOP1 criteria to 0.8%-5.5% under other definitions, suggesting standard BMI and some muscle-loss definitions may miss clinically relevant abnormalities.
The authors said body-composition profiling could add to HF risk stratification and support phenotype-specific treatment by detecting early muscle deterioration and maladaptive fat distribution.