Preoperative rectus femoris muscle ultrasound, its relationship with frailty scores, and the ability to predict recovery after cardiac surgery: a prospective cohort study.

Abstract

Background: Frailty is common in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and is associated with poorer postoperative outcomes. Ultrasound examination of skeletal muscle morphology may serve as an objective assessment tool as lean muscle mass reduction is a key feature of frailty.

Methods: This study investigated the association of ultrasound-derived muscle thickness, cross-sectional area, and echogenicity of the rectus femoris muscle (RFM) with preoperative frailty and predicted subsequent poor recovery after surgery. Eighty-five patients received preoperative RFM ultrasound examination and frailty-related assessments: Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and 5-m gait speed test (GST_5m). Association of each ultrasound measurement with frailty assessments was examined. Area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was used to assess the discriminative ability of each ultrasound measurement to predict days at home within 30 days of surgery (DAH₃₀).

Results: By CFS and GST_5m criteria, 13% and 34% respectively of participants were frail. RFM cross-sectional area alone demonstrated moderate predictive association for frailty by CFS criterion (AUROC: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.66-0.85). Specificity improved to 98.7% (95% CI: 93.6%-100.0%) by utilising RFM cross-sectional area as an 'add-on' test to a positive gait speed test, and thus a combined muscle size and function test demonstrated higher predictive performance (positive likelihood ratio: 40.4, 95% CI: 5.3-304.3) for frailty by CFS criterion than either test alone (p < 0.001). The combined 'add-on' test predictive performance for DAH₃₀ (AUROC: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.81-0.95) may also be superior to either CFS or gait speed test alone.

Conclusions: Preoperative RFM ultrasound examination, especially when integrated with the gait speed test, may be useful to identify patients at high risk of frailty and those with poor outcomes after cardiac surgery.

Trial registration: The study was registered on the Chinese Clinical Trials Registry (ChiCTR2000031098) on 22 March 2020.