Diagnostic accuracy of a ‘sarcopenia index’ based on serum biomarkers creatinine and cystatin C in 458,702 UK Biobank participants

BACKGROUND & AIMS: There is an emerging and urgent need to identify biomarkers of sarcopenia. A novel sarcopenia index (SI), based on serum creatinine and cystatin C, has emerged as a potential biomarker for use. The SI can predict clinical outcomes and discriminate between the presence of sarcopenia in a range of chronic and acute conditions. However, the SI has not yet been tested in a large real-world general population dataset. This study aimed to investigate the accuracy of the SI in the identification of sarcopenia in a large prospective general population cohort. METHODS: Data were taken from UK Biobank, a large prospective epidemiological study in the United Kingdom (UK). Serum creatinine and cystatin C values were used to calculate the SI [creatinine (mg/dl)/cystatin C (mg/dl) × 100]. Probable sarcopenia was defined by maximum handgrip strength (HGS). Muscle mass was assessed using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Low muscle mass was defined as an appendicular lean mass (ALM) index below prespecified thresholds. Confirmed sarcopenia was defined as both low HGS and low muscle mass. Pearson correlation coefficients and logistic regression were used to explore the association between various sarcopenia traits (probable sarcopenia, low ALM index, and confirmed sarcopenia) and the SI. The diagnostic value of the SI was investigated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (area under the curve, AUC). RESULTS: 458,702 participants were included in the analysis (46.4% males, mean age, males: 68.7 (±8.2) years; females: 68.2 (±8.0) years)). Probable sarcopenia was observed in 4.5% of males and 6.1% of females; low ALM index in 2.8% of males and 0.7% of females; confirmed sarcopenia in 0.3% of males and 0.1% of females. SI was significantly lower in individuals with confirmed sarcopenia (males: 86.3 ± 16.6 vs. 99.5 ± 15.3, p < .01; females: 73.6 ± 13.7 vs. 84.6 ± 14.0, p < .01). For every 1-unit increase in the SI, the odds of confirmed sarcopenia were reduced by 5% in males (odds ratio (OR): 0.95, p < 0.001) and 7% in females (OR: 0.923, p < 0.001). The AUC showed acceptable discriminative ability of confirmed sarcopenia (males: AUC = 0.731; females: AUC = 0.711). CONCLUSIONS: Using a large real-world dataset of almost half a million people, our study indicated the SI has acceptable diagnostic accuracy when identifying those with sarcopenia and may be a useful biomarker to aid the stratification of those at risk and in need of intervention.