Relationship Between Skeletal Muscle Quality and Hospital-Acquired Disability in Patients With Sepsis Admitted to the ICU: A Pilot Study

Yuta Takahashi; Tomoyuki Morisawa; Hiroshi Okamoto; Noriko Matsumoto; Masakazu Saitoh; Tetsuya Takahashi; Toshiyuki Fujiwara

doi:10.1097/CCE.0000000000000835

Relationship Between Skeletal Muscle Quality and Hospital-Acquired Disability in Patients With Sepsis Admitted to the ICU: A Pilot Study

Crit Care Explor. 2023 Jan 6;5(1):e0835. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000000835. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Authors

Yuta Takahashi^{1

2}, Tomoyuki Morisawa³, Hiroshi Okamoto⁴, Noriko Matsumoto⁵, Masakazu Saitoh³, Tetsuya Takahashi³, Toshiyuki Fujiwara^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Rehabilitation, St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Critical Care Medicine, St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Department of Nutrition, St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Early risk assessment of functional decline in patients with sepsis is clinically challenging. Recently, there is increasing interest in the nonvolitional evaluation of skeletal muscle quality.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between skeletal muscle quality and functional decline after intensive care.

Design setting and participants: This pilot study was a single-center prospective observational study conducted from March 2021 to February 2022. We included consecutive patients with sepsis who were admitted to our ICU.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was hospital-acquired disability (HAD), which is defined as a decrease in the Barthel index score of at least 5 points from pre-hospital to hospital discharge. Muscle quality was assessed by: 1) muscle echogenicity with ultrasound and 2) phase angle (PhA) with bioelectrical impedance analysis, both of which were measured on ICU days less than 3, 3-5, 5-7, 7-10, and 10-14. We compared longitudinal changes in muscle echogenicity and PhA between the HAD and non-HAD groups using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance with mixed models.

Results: Among the 22 patients, 7 (31.8%) had HAD. Muscle echogenicity was higher in the HAD group than in the non-HAD group (p < 0.001); however, no interaction effects were found between the two groups (p = 0.189). PhA showed a main effect on each evaluation day in patients (p = 0.040) and a significant interaction effect between the groups, including an early decreased pattern in the HAD group (p = 0.036).

Conclusions and relevance: Higher muscle echogenicity and a decreased PhA pattern are related to HAD. Noninvasive assessment of muscle quality using ultrasound and bioelectrical impedance analysis may be useful in predicting the functional prognosis of patients with sepsis.

Keywords: activities of daily living; bioelectrical impedance analysis; hospital-acquired disability; muscle ultrasound; phase angle; sepsis.