Prognostic Utility of Dynapenia in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

Background: Dynapenia, defined as age-associated loss of skeletal muscle strength, is associated with increased mortality rate, poor activities of daily living, and reduced quality of life. Therefore, dynapenia appears to be a better independent predictor of mortality than sarcopenia in the elderly. However, the prognostic utility of dynapenia in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is not clear. This study was performed to examine the prognostic utility of dynapenia defined by the criteria of Manini et al. in patients with CVD.

Methods: The findings of 4192 consecutive patients ≥30 years old (median [interquartile range (IQR)] age 69 [60-76] years, 2874 males) with CVD were reviewed. Grip strength and quadriceps isometric strength (QIS) were measured just before hospital discharge, and low grip strength (<26 kg in males and <18 kg in females), low QIS (<45.0% body mass [BM] and <35.0% BM in males and females, respectively) were considered to indicate dynapenia. The endpoint was all-cause mortality.

Results: A total of 507 deaths occurred during follow-up (median 2.0 years, IQR 0.8-4.4 years). The overall prevalence of dynapenia was 33.6% and increased with age (p for trend < 0.01). Females showed a significantly higher prevalence rate of dynapenia than males (43.3% vs. 29.2%, respectively; p < 0.01). Patients with dynapenia showed higher all-cause mortality rate than non-dynapenia patients (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.84; 95% confidence interval: 1.51-2.23; p < 0.01).

Conclusions: Dynapenia has a high prevalence among patients with CVD and is associated with increased mortality rate.