Writing in the 50th anniversary edition of the journal Age and Ageing, researchers Avan Sayer and Alfonso Cruz-Jentoft express optimism that a newly formed Global Leadership Initiative on Sarcopenia will develop international consensus on definition and diagnosis. Their key points:
Sarcopenia is a disorder involving the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function that commonly occurs with advancing age as well as with a number of long-term conditions.
Recognition in clinical practice is relatively recent but important because sarcopenia has a range of adverse effects on health, not the least of which include impaired mobility and increased morbidity.
Original definitions focused on muscle mass but emphasis is now on muscle function as illustrated in a number of international guidelines.
Progress in the decades ahead is likely to be seen with regard to use of routine health data, prescription of resistance exercise, translation of biology and epidemiology into first-in-man studies for new treatments and focus on sarcopenia in low-and middle-income countries.
Source: Sayer AA, Cruz-Jentoft A. Sarcopenia definition, diagnosis and treatment: consensus is growing. Age Ageing. 2022 Oct 6;51(10):afac220. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afac220.
