Comparing bedside and CT-derived muscle mass assessment methodologies at intensive care unit admission: A critical step towards bedside detection of reduced muscle mass

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Reduced skeletal muscle mass at Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission is associated with increased mortality. Bedside techniques, including bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), ultrasonography (US), and calf circumference (CC), may help to estimate skeletal muscle mass in critically ill patients. This study aimed to investigate the accuracy of these bedside methods in assessing muscle mass compared to lumbar 3 (L3) CT-derived skeletal muscle index (CT-SMI) and determine cut-offs for reduced muscle mass upon ICU admission. METHODS: ) to determine cut-off values of bedside parameters using ROC analyses. RESULTS: and US-QMLT: 2.3 cm (both sexes). CONCLUSION: At ICU admission, correlations between bedside methods and L3 CT-derived muscle mass were low to moderate. Cut-off values were derived to detect reduced skeletal muscle upon ICU admission. However, further validation is required before clinical implementation.