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. 2025 Mar 20;24(1):105.
doi: 10.1186/s12944-025-02530-9.

Association between myosteatosis or sarcopenia based on abdominal CT and hypertension in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Bowen Wang #  1 , Liping Zuo #  1 , Jinlei Fan  1 , Wei Zhao  1 , Yueming An  1 , Wangshu Cai  1   2 , Dexin Yu  3
Affiliations

Association between myosteatosis or sarcopenia based on abdominal CT and hypertension in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Bowen Wang et al. Lipids Health Dis. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Hypertension and obesity are common in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, with obesity-related changes potentially driving hypertension. However, the specific adiposity measures associated with hypertension in SLE patients remain unclear. This study assessed the association between myosteatosis and sarcopenia detected on abdominal CT and hypertension in SLE patients. Mediators of the association between myosteatosis and hypertension were also investigated.

Methods: This was a retrospective study involving SLE patients enrolled from January 2017 to August 2023 and who underwent abdominal CT at the L3 level to track myosteatosis and sarcopenia based on the skeletal muscle mean radiodensity (SMD) and skeletal muscle index considered as binary and continuous variables. The association between these body composition measures and hypertension was tested using logistic regression analyses, while mediation modeling was used to assess the mediators.

Results: A total of 279 adult SLE patients (median age, 41.00 [30.00, 51.00] years; 245 women) were included in this study. Hypertension was associated with myosteatosis (adjusted OR: 3.54; 95% CI: 1.18-10.61 for the binary variable and 1.31; 95% CI: 1.02-1.68 for the continuous variable). No statistically significant association was observed between hypertension and sarcopenia (adjusted OR: 0.48; 95%CI: 0.23-1.01 for the binary variable and 0.95; 95%CI: 0.78-1.16 for the continuous variable). Mediation analyses revealed eGFR could mediate the association between myosteatosis (considered as a continuous variable) and hypertension in SLE patients when taken alone (95% CI: 0.0177-0.2765) or in combination with the TyG index (95% CI: 0.0032-0.0614).

Conclusions: Myosteatosis was associated with hypertension in SLE patients. eGFR alone or in combination with the TyG index may mediate this association.

Keywords: Body composition; Hypertension; Myosteatosis; Sarcopenia; Systemic lupus erythematosus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This retrospective study was approved by our Ethics Committee and the requirement for informed consent was waived (KYLL-202307-043). Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Measurement of Body Composition and Definition of Myosteatosis and Sarcopenia. Cross-sectional axial CT images at the L3 level in patients with SLE were analyzed using semi-automated software (SliceOmatic version 5.0, Tomovision Inc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada). Blue, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT); yellow, visceral adipose tissue; red, skeletal muscle (SM); green, intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT). Skeletal muscle area (SMA) was normalized by dividing by the square of height: SMI (cm2/m2) = SMA (cm2) / height2 (m2). Phenotypic classification of skeletal muscle abnormalities in patients with SLE according to SMD and SMI
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Flowchart highlighting the selection of included SLE Patients
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Nonlinear Associations of CT-Based SMD and SMI with Hypertension in SLE Patients. Histograms and line graphs show unadjusted, nonlinear associations between abdominal CT-based (A) skeletal muscle radiodensity (SMD) and (B) skeletal muscle index (SMI) and hypertension among SLE patients
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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