Paraspinous Sarcopenia predictor of prognosis in Geriatric trauma patients: Study

A recent study finds that the surrogate measurement of frailty of Paraspinous Sarcopenia at T12 level guides in long term prognostication in geriatric trauma patients. The study was Published in 'JAMA Surgery' 2020.

The paraspinous muscle group can be readily measured on abdominal and chest CT scans during trauma evaluation. Sarcopenia of these muscles can be a good surrogate for physical frailty in geriatric trauma patients. Dr. Kaplan from Virginia Mason Medical Centre and et al conducted a study with a hypothesis that paraspinous sarcopenia at the T12 level correlates with previously established thresholds at the lumbar level and is associated with poor long-term outcomes in older trauma patients.

The study was conducted by collecting data from January 2011 to December 2014 of trauma patients who are 65 years and older at a single level 1 trauma centre. Chest and/or abdominal CT imaging obtained were used to determine cross-sectional area of paraspinous and abdominal muscles at the T12 and L3 levels. Skeletal muscle index (SMI) was calculated as cross sectional area divided by height squared (cm2 /m2). Established L3 SMI thresholds were correlated with paraspinous T12 SMI to identify optimal sex-specific sarcopenia thresholds.