Assessment of the relationship between sarcopenia and heart failure among postmenopausal women

Objectives: Sarcopenia is among the most important extracardiac conditions associated with reductions in functional capacity and negative outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). However, the relationship between sarcopenia and systolic HF in postmenopausal women remains to be fully characterized. Accordingly, this study was developed to examine this relationship in further detail. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study enrolling 139 consecutive postmenopausal women ≥ 55 years of age, including 69 who were hospitalized with systolic HF (ejection fraction < 50%) with an average age of 77.28 ± 6.42 years and 70 participants without HF with an average age of 77.10 ± 6.93 years. Participants were diagnosed with sarcopenia based on standard international criteria assessing handgrip strength as a measure of muscle strength, gait speed as a measure of physical performance, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass. Results: The group containing patients diagnosed with systolic HF contained more participants with low handgrip strengths, slow gait speed, and low appendicular skeletal muscle mass index values as compared to the control group (all P < 0.05). Among postmenopausal women, sarcopenia was independently associated with the odds of being diagnosed with systolic HF after adjusting for potential confounding factors (OR = 3.058; 95% CI, 1.315-7.111; P = 0.009). Conclusion: Sarcopenia is independently associated with systolic HF risk among postmenopausal women.