A Snapshot View of Sarcopenia and Frailty Status in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Authors

Tunahan Isik, Dilek Barutcu Atas, Harun Coban, Busra Can, Murat Tugcu, Hakki Arikan, Ebru Asicioglu, Asli Tufan, Serhan Tuglular, Arzu Velioglu

Published in

Clinical transplantation. Volume 40. Issue 7. Pages e70619.

Abstract

Sarcopenia, defined as loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, often progresses to frailty and is associated with unfavorable post-transplant outcomes. Frailty is characterized by diminished physiological capacity and increased vulnerability. On the other hand, kidney transplantation is associated with lower mortality rates and improved quality of life. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of frailty status using two different methods in kidney transplant (KT) recipients, to investigate the relationship between sarcopenia and frailty status, and to identify factors that influence both conditions.
We included 123 KT recipients who were admitted to the transplant outpatient clinic between March 2024 and July 2024. EWGSOP2 criteria were used to diagnose sarcopenia. Modified Fried's Frailty Phenotype criteria and FRAIL scale were used to assess frailty.
Mean age was 49±12 years and 45.5% were female. Overall, 32.5% and 4.9% of patients were identified as probable sarcopenic and sarcopenic, consecutively. The number of patients with deceased transplantation was higher in sarcopenic patients (p = 0.004). When grouped according to Modified Fried's Frailty Phenotype 41.5% of patients were prefrail and 4.1% were frail. According to FRAIL scale, 28.5% of participants were prefrail, and 3.3% were frail. Two scales showed substantial agreement. Serum phosphorus was higher in the frail and prefrail patient groups according to both frailty scales compared to robust group (p<0.001, p = 0.04).
Pre-frailty and sarcopenia are common in KT recipients and are associated with higher serum phosphorus. Notably, sarcopenia was linked to having a deceased donor transplantation, underscoring the importance of targeted screening and management in this population.

PMID:
42461568
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.