Central and peripheral arterial stiffness and sarcopenia in hospitalized older adults.

Abstract

Objective: Both sarcopenia and arterial wall stiffening are frequent findings among hospitalized older adults, and further insight should be gained to explore their pathophysiological mechanisms and possible correlations.

Methods: 90 hospitalized geriatric patients (mean age 83.94 ± 6.6 years, 38.89% female, 36.7% sarcopenic) have been enrolled, and underwent clinical, comorbidity and biochemical assessment. Sarcopenia was investigated following the diagnostic algorithm according to European guidelines assessing muscular strength, using a portable dynamometer, and muscle mass by bio-impedance analysis (BIA); carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), carotid-radial PWV (crPWV), femoral-pedal PWV (fpPWV) and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) were obtained for each.

Results: Sarcopenic patients (n = 33) were older (p < 0.01) than subjects without sarcopenia (n = 57). Sarcopenic patients presented higher CAVI (12.67 ± 3.12 vs. 10.91 ± 1.4, p < 0.01) and fpPWV, but not cfPWV and crPWV. In backward analysis muscle strength and comorbidity index resulted good indipendent variables of fpPWV (R² 0.11), muscle strength, comorbidity index and sex could predict CAVI (R² 0.22). When examining sarcopenia diagnoses determinants, in a logistic binary regression model and considering several possible covariates, fpPWV resulted a significant indipendent variable of sarcopenia along with age and sex.

Conclusion: increased indexes of arterial stiffness are shown in sarcopenic hospitalized older adults as compared to hospitalized patients without sarcopenia; peripheral arterial segments of the lower limb appeared to be more involved in the stiffening process, as compared to central segments.