Normalizing Calf Circumference To Identify Low Skeletal Muscle Mass In Older Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: functional limitation is a result of sarcopenia and is associated with loss of skeletal muscle mass (SMM). Cost-effective methods are important for the identification of sarcopenia.Objective: to propose cutoff points for normalized calf circumference (CC) in order to identify low SMM in older women based on their functional limitation.Methods: in this descriptive, cross-sectional study the CC values of a young female sample (n = 78) were used to establish cutoff points (-2 SD) for low SMM in older women (n = 67). Functional limitation was identified by the six-minute walk test (<= 400 m). CC was normalized by body mass, height, and BMI. The diagnostic accuracy of CC was calculated with a ROC curve, using functional limitation as standard.Results: cutoff points and area under the curve (AUC) were: CC (<= 28.5; 0.62); CC.body mass-1 (<= 0.40; 0.63); CC center dot height(-2) (<= 8.52; 0.55) and CC center dot BMI-1 (<= 1.10; 0.73). Only CC center dot BMI-1 achieved a desirable accuracy (AUC > 0.7) to distinguish functional limitation.Conclusion: the accuracy attained supports the use of CC center dot BMI-1 to identify low SMM in older women. In the clinical context it is possible to predict the risk of sarcopenia when sophisticated methods for determining SMM are not available.