Intramuscular adipose tissue at level Th12 is associated with survival in COVID‐19

Sarcopenia, as an example of abnormal body composition, is defined as a significant loss of skeletal muscle mass (muscle wasting) and muscle strength and infiltration of muscle by fat and connective tissue. 1,2 Body composition has been studied using a single computed tomography (CT) slice, which is considered the reference standard for quantitative body composition studies. 3,4 Abnormal body composition, and in particular sarcopenia, has been associated with survival in patients with cancer 5 or an increased cardiometabolic risk. 6 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has caused a pandemic of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID‐19). Inclusion criteria were a polymerase chain reaction‐confirmed COVID‐19 infection, age ≥18 years, need for hospitalization, availability of a CT scan of the chest and availability of clinical outcome data. 1 TablePatient characteristics of COVID‐19 patients based on outcome after 3 weeks of admission Dead Alive P‐value Clinical feature n = 40 n = 175 No. (%) of female patients 13 (32.5%) 73 (41.7%) 0.371 a Age at admission 66.9 (12.0) 59.8 (14.5) 0.004 Length (cm) 172.0 (11.7) 171.8 (9.7) 0.948 Weight (kg) 86.5 (18.8) 85.4 (18.5) 0.760 Body mass index 29.0 (5.8) 28.8 (6.2) 0.841 Clinical outcome measures No. (%) of patients admitted to MCU/ICU 24 (60.0%) 34 (19.4%)