Association between non-thyroidal illness syndrome and pre-sarcopenia in elderly patients / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the association between non-thyroid illness syndrome(NTIS)and pre-sarcopenia in the elderly.Methods:In the retrospective study, a total of 219 patients aged 60-85 years in Department of Geriatrics, Sir Run Run Hospital, Nanjing Medical University from April 2018 to March 2021, included 60 patients with NTIS and 159 patients without NTIS.Clinical data, laboratory results and body composition data were collected.Pre-sarcopenia was diagnosed based on human composition determination data and diagnostic criteria of pre-sarcopenia.Logistic regression analysis, Pearson's correlation analysis and the area under receiver operator characteristic curve(ROC)were used to explore the correlation between serum thyroid hormone levels and diagnostic data level of pre-sarcopenia.Results:Of 54 pre-sarcopenia patients, 30.3%(36/119)were male, 18.0%(18/100)were female with statistically significantly differences( P<0.01). Mean age was higher in both male and female patients in the NTIS group than in the non-NTIS group( P<0.01). The body mass index, levels of triiodothyronine(T3), free triiodothyronine(FT3), hemoglobin, and albumin were lower in NTIS group than in non-NTIS group( P<0.05). The prevalence of presarcopenia in female patients was higher in the NTIS group than in the non-NTIS group[42.9%(10/17) vs.10.6%(8/83), χ2=9.564, P<0.01]. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of pre-morbidity of sarcopenia was significantly higher in NTIS patients than in non-NTIS patients.FT3 was positively correlated with skeletal muscle mass index, fat-free body weight, and phase angle, and negatively correlated with visceral fat area( r=-0.17, P<0.05). While, free thyroxine(FT4)was negatively correlated with skeletal muscle mass index( r=-0.21), fat-free body weight( r=-0.16)and phase Angle( r=-0.2, P<0.01 or P<0.05), and was positively correlated with body fat percentage and visceral fat area( r=0.20 and 0.22, respectively, P<0.01). The use of area under ROC curve(AUC)of FT3 predicting sarcopenia stage showed that the AUC was 0.768(95% CI 0.691~0.844). Conclusions:In elderly patients, NTIS is correlated with the pre-sarcopenia in the elderly, and FT3 and FT4 are related to muscle mass.The low level of FT3 can predict the pre-validation of pre-sarcopenia.