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
. 2023;13(3):341-350.
doi: 10.3233/JPD-225108.

Temporal Muscle Thickness Correlates with Sarcopenia in Parkinson's Disease

Marina Peball  1 , Dora Valent  1 , Anna Grossauer  1 , Kathrin Marini  1 , Philipp Ellmerer  1 , Jonas Wallnöfer  1 , Florian Krismer  1 , Atbin Djamshidian  1 , Klaus Seppi  1 , Beatrice Heim  1
Affiliations

Temporal Muscle Thickness Correlates with Sarcopenia in Parkinson's Disease

Marina Peball et al. J Parkinsons Dis. 2023.

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia is characterized by a progressive loss of muscle mass, strength, and function resulting in adverse health outcomes. Current assessment strategies are bothersome and means to simplify the diagnosis are an unmet medical need in Parkinson's disease (PD).

Objective: To evaluate temporal muscle thickness (TMT) obtained on routine cranial MRI as a surrogate marker of sarcopenia in PD patients.

Methods: We correlated TMT from axial non-contrast-enhanced T1-weighted sequences of MRI close (±12 months) to an outpatient visit including sarcopenia (EWGSOP1, EWGSOP2, SARC-F), frailty (Fried's criteria, clinical frailty scale), and disease characteristics of Parkinson's patients (Hoehn and Yahr-scale, Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, quality of life with the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8) assessments.

Results: Cranial MRI was available in 32 patients with a mean age of 73.56±5.14 years, mean disease duration of 11.46±5.66 years, and median Hoehn and Yahr stage of 2.5. The mean TMT was 7.49±2.76 (7.15) mm. Mean TMT was significantly associated with sarcopenia (EWGSOP2, p = 0.018; EWGSOP1, p = 0.023) and frailty status (physical phenotype; p = 0.045). Moreover, there were significant moderate to strong correlations between TMT measurement and appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (r: 0.437, p = 0.012), as well as handgrip strength (r: 0.561, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Reduced TMT seems to be a promising surrogate marker for sarcopenia (EWGSOP2) and muscle strength in this pilot study in PD patients.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; Temporal muscle thickness; biomarker; frailty; sarcopenia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to report in relation to the manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Temporal muscle thickness measurement of patients in different sarcopenia stages. A) no sarcopenia, B) severe sarcopenia (EWGSOP2).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean temporal muscle thickness in different sarcopenia stages. EWGSOP, European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distribution of temporal muscle thickness in different sarcopenia stages. EWGSOP, European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Bahat G, Bauer J, Boirie Y, Bruyère O, Cederholm T, Cooper C, Landi F, Rolland Y, Sayer AA, Schneider SM, Sieber CC, Topinkova E, Vandewoude M, Visser M, Zamboni M Writing Group for the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2 (EWG-SOP2), and the Extended Group for EWGSOP2 (2019) Sarcozpenia: Revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis. Age Ageing 48, 16–31. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Baeyens JP, Bauer JM, Boirie Y, Cederholm T, Landi F, Martin FC, Michel JP, Rolland Y, Schneider SM, Topinková E, Vandewoude M, Zamboni M European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (2010) Spenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis: Report of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People. Age Ageing 39, 412–423. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fernandes LV, Paiva AEG, Silva ACB, de Castro IC, Santiago AF, de Oliveira EP, Porto LCJ (2022) Prevalence of sarcopenia according to EWGSOP1 and EWGSOP2 in older adults and their associations with unfavorable health outcomes: A systematic review. Aging Clin Exp Res 34, 505–514. - PubMed
    1. Petermann-Rocha F, Balntzi V, Gray SR, Lara J, Ho FK, Pell JP, Celis-Morales C (2022) Global prevalence of sarcopenia and severe spenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 13, 86–99. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cai Y, Feng F, Wei Q, Jiang Z, Ou R, Shang H (2021) Sarcopenia in patients with Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Neurol 12, 598035. - PMC - PubMed