ABSTRACT
Objective At present no deep investigation has been done on the relationship between handgrip strength and appendicular lean mass (ALM) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The study aimed to explore the present situation of handgrip strength in patients with stable COPD and relationship between handgrip strength and ALM.Methods A total of 93 patients with stable COPD who hospitalized in our department from August 2016 to July 2017 were selected for the study. All the patients underwent handgrip strength test, body composition analysis, as well as the analysis of the relationship between handgrip strength and ALM.Results Multivariate linear regression analysis showed age(X1), education(X2), smoking(X3), course of disease(X4) and lower limb lean mass(X5) could be taken as predictive factors for the variation degree of handgrip strength (R2=50.5%), and multiple linear regression equation was Y=9.959-4.315X1+1.397X2+2.679X3-1.526X4+1.538X5. The variation degree decreased to 48.1% when the course of disease was removed from the model, 28.3% when the limb lean mass was removed, 26.5% when two variables were removed. The correlation coefficients of ALM, upper limb, lower limb and torso lean mass (\[22.32±3.25\]kg, \[6.48±1.05\]kg, \[15.83±2.26\]kg, \[22.27±3.22\]kg) with handgrip strength (\[32.27±7.27\]kgf) were respectively 0.484, 0.436, 0.496 and 0.496 (P＜0.01).Conclusion The handgrip strength in patients with stable COPD is closely associated with ALM, and the course of disease and the lower limb lean mass greatly affect the handgrip strength. Clinical workers should pay extra attention to the relationship in order to give timely clinical intervention.