Malmstrom T, Morley J
J Frailty Aging 2013;2:55-6
Publication date: March 1, 2013
Summary
This article reports on a presentation by Malmstrom and Morley at the December 2012 meeting of the International Task Force on Sarcopenia in Orlando, Florida, USA. In their presentation, and this supplemental article, the authors discuss the ideal population of patients for sarcopenia clinical trials.
The authors suggest that since sarcopenia is one of the major causes of frailty. It follows that the ideal population for clinical trials should test highly on scoring instruments such as the simple, rapid IANA FRAIL scale, or other more complex instruments such as the Cardiovascular Health Screen, the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, or the SARC-F. The authors also propose several criteria that would potentially exclude sarcopenia, such as presence of specific muscle disease, peripheral vascular disease with intermittent claudication, disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system, arthritis pain that inhibits movement, cachexia, NYHA Stage IV heart failure, and COPD with an FEV 1.0 of <50% predicted. Additionally, those with a PHQ-9 of 15 or greater, and in many cases those with dementia, should be excluded from clinical trials of sarcopenia. Tests such as DEXA, gait speed, and percentage of lean muscle mass can be used to more strongly establish sarcopenia in patients for entry into clinical trials.