Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021;25(1):64-70.
doi: 10.1007/s12603-020-1448-7.

Sarcopenia in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI): A Systematic Review of the Literature

D Bertschi  1 , C M Kiss, A W Schoenenberger, A E Stuck, R W Kressig
Affiliations
Free article

Sarcopenia in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI): A Systematic Review of the Literature

D Bertschi et al. J Nutr Health Aging. 2021.
Free article

Abstract

Background: In older patients, sarcopenia is a prevalent disease associated with negative outcomes. Sarcopenia has been investigated in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), but the criteria for diagnosis of the disease are heterogeneous. This systematic review of the current literature aims to evaluate the prevalence of sarcopenia in patients undergoing TAVI and to analyse the impact of sarcopenia on clinical outcomes.

Methods: A comprehensive search of the literature has been performed in electronic databases from the date of initiation until March 2020. Using a pre-defined search strategy, we identified studies assessing skeletal muscle mass, muscle quality and muscle function as measures for sarcopenia in patients undergoing TAVI. We evaluated how sarcopenia affects the outcomes mortality at ≥1 year, prolonged length of hospital stay, and functional decline.

Results: We identified 18 observational studies, enrolling a total number of 9'513 patients. For assessment of skeletal muscle mass, all included studies used data from computed tomography. Cut-off points for definition of low muscle mass were heterogeneous, and prevalence of sarcopenia varied between 21.0% and 70.2%. In uni- or multivariate regression analysis of different studies, low muscle mass was found to be a significant predictor of mortality, prolonged length of hospital stay, and functional decline. No interventional study was identified measuring the effect of nutritional or physiotherapy interventions on sarcopenia in TAVI patients.

Conclusions: Sarcopenia is highly prevalent among patients undergoing TAVI, and negatively affects important outcomes. Early diagnosis of this condition might allow a timely start of nutritional and physiotherapy interventions to prevent negative outcomes in TAVI patients.

Keywords: Sarcopenia; aortic valve replacement; cardiology; geriatrics; malnutrition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Dominic Bertschi (DB): No conflicts of interest. Funding: This work was in part supported by the „Forschungsfonds der Geriatrischen Universitätsklinik“, Bern/Switzerland. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Caroline M. Kiss (CMK): No conflicts of interest. Andreas W. Schoenenberger (AWS): No conflicts of interest. Andreas E. Stuck (AES): No conflicts of interest. Reto W. Kressig (RWK): No conflicts of interest.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources