Research

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In critically ill ICU patients without acute kidney injury, a higher Sarcopenia Index (serum creatinine divided by serum cystatin C multiplied by 100) is independently associated with lower hospital and 90-day mortality and shorter duration of mechanical ventilation.

For ICU patients without kidney failure, calculating the ratio of serum creatinine to cystatin C (multiplied by 100) provides a better estimate of muscle mass and predicts survival better than using creatinine alone or standard nutritional scores. This index can help identify high-risk patients for early intervention.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
After adjustment for Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III, body surface area, and age, sarcopenia index was independently predictive of both hospital (p = 0.001) and 90-day mortality (p < 0.0001). Among the 131 patients on mechanical ventilator, the duration of mechanical ventilation was significantly lower on those with higher sarcopenia index (–1 d for each 10 unit of sarcopenia index [95% CI, –1.4 to –0.2; p = 0.006]).
Kianoush Kashani et al. · Critical Care Medicine · 2016

Why this rating

Retrospective cohort study with a relatively small sample size (n=226) and moderate correlation with gold standard (r=0.62).

Source

Evaluating Muscle Mass by Using Markers of Kidney Function: Development of the Sarcopenia Index

Kianoush Kashani et al. · Critical Care Medicine · 2016

DOI 10.1097/ccm.0000000000002013

cohort · n=226Cited 333×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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