Correlation between sarcopenia and left ventricular myocardial mass in chronic heart failure patients

Sarcopenia is defined as a progressive age-related syndrome of reduced whole-body muscle mass, muscle strength, and muscle function. Patients with heart failure (HF) and sarcopenia are inclined to have decreased muscle strength. The current research suggests that skeletal muscle changes are the main manifestations of sarcopenia, but myocardium is not mentioned as skeletal muscle. The myocardium changes significantly with the progression of HF. Measuring myocardial quality has become an important and accessible way to assess HF by detecting changes in myocardial quality in patients with sarcopenia. Due to its economical, simple, and effective advantages in measuring myocardial quality, real-time three-dimensional echocardiography provides a convenient and reliable method for clinical diagnosis of HF and sarcopenia. This will be conducive to the screening of sarcopenia in people with chronic HF to better guide clinical treatments. This review describes the definition and diagnostic criteria of sarcopenia, the characteristics of HF with sarcopenia, and the related study of myocardial quality.