Prognostic Implication of Baseline Sarcopenia for Length of Hospital Stay and Survival in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019
JW Kim, Jun Sik Yoon, Eun Jin Kim, Hyo‐Lim Hong, Hyun Hee Kwon, Chi Young Jung, Kyung Chan Kim, Yu Sub Sung, Sung‐Hoon Park, Seong‐Kyu Kim, Jung‐Yoon Choe
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The impact of sarcopenia on clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not clearly determined yet. We aimed to investigate the association between baseline sarcopenia and clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. METHODS: All hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 who had baseline chest computed tomography (CT) scans at a Korean university hospital from February 2020 to May 2020 were included. The main outcome was time from hospital admission to discharge. Death was considered as a competing risk for discharge. Baseline skeletal muscle cross-sectional area at the level of the 12th thoracic vertebra was measured from chest CT scans. The lowest quartile of skeletal muscle index (skeletal muscle cross-sectional area divided by height-squared) was defined as sarcopenia. RESULTS: Of 121 patients (median age, 62 years; 44 men; 29 sarcopenic), 7 patients died and 86 patients were discharged during the 60-day follow-up. Patients with sarcopenia showed a longer time to discharge (median, 55 vs 28 days; p < .001) and a higher incidence of death (17.2% vs 2.2%; p = .004) than those without sarcopenia. Baseline sarcopenia was an independent predictor of delayed hospital discharge (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.47; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.23-0.96), but was not independently associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 (aHR, 3.80; 95% CI, 0.48-30.26). The association between baseline sarcopenia and delayed hospital discharge was consistent in subgroups stratified by age, sex, comorbidities, and severity of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Baseline sarcopenia was independently associated with a prolonged hospital stay in patients with COVID-19. Sarcopenia could be a prognostic marker in COVID-19.