Validity of measuring psoas muscle mass index for assessing sarcopenia in patients with gynecological cancer

Abstract Objective The current study evaluated the performance of psoas muscle mass measurement for detecting low skeletal muscle mass quantity. Methods A sample of 82 consecutive patients with gynecological cancers was examined using computed tomography and dual energy X-ray absorptiometric scan before treatment. Skeletal muscle mass index was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometric scan and its cut-off value was set at 5.40 kg/m2 for detecting low skeletal muscle mass. Psoas muscle mass index was manually measured with cross-sectional computed tomography imaging at the level of L3 by six evaluators. Results Low skeletal muscle mass index was identified in 23 (28.0%) patients. Two-way analysis of variance confirmed a significant main effect of skeletal muscle mass index on mean psoas muscle mass index values (P