Decoding Skeletal Muscle Area and Index on CT: Refining Height Scaling Standards for Enhanced Mortality Risk Prediction

Full article: https://www.ajronline.org/doi/10.2214/AJR.23.29889

This podcast from George Vilanilam, MD focusses on sarcopenia and its assessment using CT scans. Sarcopenia is often assessed using the Skeletal Muscle Index (SMI), which is calculated by dividing the Skeletal Muscle Area (SMA) at the third lumbar vertebra (L3) by the patient's height squared. However, this study aimed to determine whether there's a more accurate way to scale muscle area relative to patient height and to explore how this might affect the ability of SMI to predict all-cause mortality.