Sarcopenia is prevalent in patients with Crohn's disease in clinical remission.
BACKGROUND
Patients with Crohn's disease (CD) are prone to osteoporosis. A loss of muscle mass, called sarcopenia, is responsible for an increased risk of disability. Many factors associated with osteopenia also decrease muscle mass. The aim of the present study was to measure the prevalence of sarcopenia in CD patients in remission and uncover its relationship with osteopenia.


METHODS
In all, 82 CD patients (43 female/39 male; 36 +/- 14 years; body mass index [BMI] 21.1 +/- 3.4) and 50 healthy volunteers (30F/20M; 39 +/- 13 years; BMI 22.2 +/- 2.5) were studied. Body composition was assessed using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Sarcopenia was defined as an appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI) below 5.45 kg/m(2) for women and 7.26 for men. Osteopenia was defined as a T-score for bone mineral density (BMD) (g/cm(2)) below -1.0.


RESULTS
In all, 60% of CD patients were found to be sarcopenic and 30% osteopenic, compared to 16% and 4% of controls, respectively (P < 0.01). ASMI was significantly lower in patients than in controls (6.0 +/- 1.1 versus 6.5 +/- 1.2; P < 0.05). Sarcopenic patients had significantly (P < 0.01) lower BMI (20.0 +/- 3.5 versus 22.7 +/- 2.8 kg/m(2)), lean mass (41.5 +/- 9.1 versus 48.1 +/- 9.1 kg), and BMD (1.09 +/- 0.12 versus 1.15 +/- 0.08 g/cm(2)) than nonsarcopenic patients; 91% of sarcopenic patients were also osteopenic. ASMI correlated with BMD (r = 0.46; P < 0.01) and BMI (r = 0.38; P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of sarcopenia is high in young CD patients and strongly related to osteopenia. These 2 phenomena may share similar mechanisms. Simultaneous screening for sarcopenia and osteopenia may be useful in CD patients.
Schneider
Stéphane M
SM
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice, Pôle Digestif, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Faculté de Médecine, Nice, France. stephane.schneider@unice.fr
Al-Jaouni
Rima
R
Filippi
Jerôme
J
Wiroth
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Zeanandin
Gilbert
G
Arab
Kamel
K
Hébuterne
Xavier
X
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015519:Bone Density; D001851:Bone Diseases, Metabolic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053580:Muscle Strength; D009133:Muscular Atrophy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult