Prevalence of sarcopenia and relevance of body composition, physiological function, fatigue, and health-related quality of life in patients before allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Purpose Cachexia in patients with hematological malignancies is often related to sarcopenia. We believe that allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) patients often exhibit sarcopenia prior to transplantation. Here, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia and its relationship with body composition, physiological function, nutrition, fatigue, and health-related quality of life (QOL) in patients before allo-HSCT. We further investigated the confounding factors associated with sarcopenia. Methods We included 164 patients with allo-HSCT in this study. Body composition, handgrip, knee extensor strength, and 6-min walk test were evaluated. Furthermore, fatigue, nutritional status, and health-related QOL were also evaluated. Results Eighty-three patients (50.6 %) enrolled in our study had sarcopenia prior to allo-HSCT. Patients with sarcopenia experienced decreased muscular strength and increased fatigue compared with patients without sarcopenia ( p