When they say it’s all about age. Even that of the muscles. It also has to do with Covid: the “advanced age” factor has proved to be decisive in the course of cases of infection by Covid-19. At least during the first wave of infections, when the virus underlying the disease had not yet spread in its variants which, as we have seen, then also affected the younger categories and even children.
Having said that, seniority does not cease to represent a condition of fragility and risk. A recent study has in fact identified in the “sarcopenia“, Or in the progressive decline in muscle mass and strength due to aging, a negative prognostic factor in patients hospitalized for Covid.
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What is a natural degenerative process, inevitable and unfortunately irreversible (even if partially curbable through regular physical activity), thus reveals itself as yet another weak point of the “over” with respect to the circulation of infections. This is demonstrated by an all-Italian studio.
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“The great challenge of the pandemic has shown us once again how precious the collaboration between different hospitals is – he explains Simone Schiaffino, radiologist at the Irccs Policlinico San Donato and first author of the research – is the model of the multicentre study, which integrates multiple experiences for a common purpose: to obtain from the investigations carried out data useful for prognosis through a data not normally considered, the muscular state which effectively expresses the possible “fragility” of patients, a very current concept. Setting up studies that go beyond the limits of the single hospital is a necessity that we have verified in particular in this pandemic, both on this occasion, and in previous experiences such as the application of artificial intelligence algorithms to the reading of chest X-rays in patients with suspicion Covid”.
The “shared” research, published in the scientific journal Radiology, involved 552 patients including 364 men, mean age 65 years and was based on a statistical model that crossed the information relating to the state of the paravertebral musculature obtained through thoracic CT scan, performed at the patient’s entrance to the hospital to check for pneumonia, with some physical and clinical data of each patient.
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In the course of the study, carried out between February and April 2020, a significant association was observed between reduced muscle mass and the occurrence of complications from Covid. The analysis examined age, sex, body mass index, extent of pneumonia, muscle status, any concomitant bronchopulmonary, cardiovascular, neurological and oncological diseases, diabetes, renal insufficiency and indices derived from laboratory tests. Well, it muscle deficiency proved to be a strong independent predictor of both ICU admission and death.
“Thoracic CT scans performed on patients suffering from Covid-19 they gave us the opportunity to have access to a valuable source of information relating to the state of the paravertebral muscles “confirms Professor Luca Maria Sconfienza, head of the Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Unit at the Irccs Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute and professor at the University of Milan. “This allowed us to validate our hypothesis, which is that reduced muscle mass is a relevant factor to consider in patients Covid, as is already the case for other comorbidities. These results could be useful to clinical colleagues engaged in the wards Covid“. The study was coordinated by the Irccs Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute and by the Irccs Policlinico San Donato of Milan together with the Maggiore della Carità University Hospital of Novara, the ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda in Milan, the Poliambulanza Institute Hospital Foundation of Brescia. , at the European Institute of Oncology and at the Hospital of Cento – in collaboration with the University of Milan, the University of Palermo and the University of Eastern Piedmont.
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