Sarcopenia diagnosed by ultrasound-assessed quadriceps muscle thickness and handgrip strength predicts mortality in patients on hemodialysis

Background Estimation of muscle mass is a pivotal component in the diagnosis of protein-energy wasting and sarcopenia. While bioimpedance spectroscopy is a widely accepted technique for the assessment of lean tissue related to the diagnosis of sarcopenia, to date skeletal muscle ultrasound (US) has not gained full acceptance for this purpose. The aim of this study was to assess the predictive value for mortality of the indexed thickness of the quadriceps vastus intermedius, as measured by US, compared to lean tissue index as estimated by bioimpedance spectroscopy, both combined with handgrip strength in a group of patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) on maintenance hemodialysis (HD). Methods The cut-off values for low handgrip strength were