Rondaij Tadej, Kozjek Nada Rotovnik, Jerele Cene, Jordan Taja
1Institute of Physiology, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Radiol Oncol. 2025 Jun 16;59(2):153-167. doi: 10.2478/raon-2025-0035. eCollection 2025 Jun 1.
Sarcopenia is a progressive and generalised skeletal muscle disorder which presents as loss of muscle mass and function and is associated with increased likelihood of adverse outcomes, reduced quality of life and increased mortality. In developed countries, the prevalence of sarcopenia is rising due to increasing life expectancy. Still, in many clinical settings, sarcopenia may be overlooked and undertreated. While several tools are available for assessment of muscle mass and quality, there remains a need for safe, reliable and accurate diagnostic methods which can be implemented for both sarcopenia diagnosis and the evaluation of treatment efficacy.
Ultrasound is an accessible and non-ionizing imaging technique that can potentially be used for that purpose. Several ultrasound parameters have been identified for their utility to provide assessment of muscle mass, quality and/or muscle function. Ultrasound is gaining recognition as an accurate and reproducible method of muscle mass assessment. However, there are still several limitations that preclude the application of ultrasound in routine clinical practice. Implementing a harmonized measurement protocol and conducting large-scale longitudinal studies on both healthy individuals and various patient cohorts could enable the establishment of clearly defined reference values for individual ultrasound parameters and, in turn, potentially reliable differentiation between normal and sarcopenic states.
肌肉减少症是一种进行性全身性骨骼肌疾病，表现为肌肉质量和功能丧失，与不良后果风险增加、生活质量下降及死亡率上升相关。在发达国家，由于预期寿命延长，肌肉减少症的患病率正在上升。然而，在许多临床环境中，肌肉减少症可能被忽视且治疗不足。虽然有几种工具可用于评估肌肉质量和质量，但仍需要安全、可靠且准确的诊断方法，可用于肌肉减少症的诊断及治疗效果评估。
超声是一种可及的非电离成像技术，有可能用于此目的。已确定了几个超声参数，因其可用于评估肌肉质量、质量和/或肌肉功能。超声作为一种准确且可重复的肌肉质量评估方法正逐渐得到认可。然而，仍有几个限制因素妨碍超声在常规临床实践中的应用。实施统一的测量方案，并对健康个体和不同患者队列进行大规模纵向研究，可能有助于为各个超声参数建立明确的参考值，进而有可能可靠地区分正常状态和肌肉减少症状态。
