Relationship between neck vessel abnormalities and sarcopenia: results of a study examining trends in health and aging in western China

Key summary points Aim To elucidate the association between cervical vascular ultrasonography abnormalities (high Crouse score, high carotid intima-media thickness [CIMT], high plaque score [PS]) and sarcopenia and its diagnostic elements. Findings 14.81% were diagnosed as sarcopenia. High Crouse scores and high PS were found to be associated with sarcopenia when AWGS2019 was used to define sarcopenia and its diagnostic elements; further analysis showed that high Crouse scores were mainly associated with low muscle mass and low physical function, while high PS was associated with low physical function. Message High Crouse score was mainly associated with low muscle mass and low physical function while high PS was associated with low physical function. Objective To elucidate the association between cervical vascular abnormalities (high Crouse score, high carotid intima-media thickness [CIMT], high plaque score [PS]) and sarcopenia and its diagnostic elements. Study design This cross-sectional investigation selected patients from the Western China Health and Aging Trends Study (WCHAT) aged 60 years and older. High CIMT and high Crouse score was defined as values ≥ upper quartile cutoff. Moreover, PS ≥ 3 was set as an high PS. Sarcopenia diagnosis and the definition of sarcopenia diagnostic elements were based on the Asian Working Group on Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 consensus. Lastly, associations between high Crouse score, high PS, high CIMT, and sarcopenia and its diagnostic elements were assessed using logistic regression. Result In all, we recruited 932 subjects in this study, among which, 138 people (14.81%) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. The rates of high Crouse score (sarcopenia vs. non-sarcopenia: 37.68% vs. 23.30%, P