RESUMO
Background: Hematological cancer patients are prone to the development of sarcopenia and impaired nutritional and functional status. SARC-CalF is a screening tool for the risk of sarcopenia that has shown good results in this population. This study aimed to identify the risk of sarcopenia by SARC-CalF and to verify its association with nutritional status and Hand Grip Strength (HGS) in patients with hematological cancer. Materials and Methods: Adult patients, of both sexes, with hematological cancer, and in outpatient care participated in the study. We measured the Hand Grip Strength of the Dominant Hand (HGSD) and the Adductor Pollicis Muscle Thickness of the Dominant Hand (APMTD). Moreover, we applied the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and SARC-CalF. Data were analyzed with SPSS® software, 22.0, with a significance level of 5.0%. Results: Fifty-one patients aged an average of 60.4 ± 15.1 years were evaluated. Of those, 58.8% were elderly, 51% female, and 80.4% declared themselves non-white. The predominant diagnosis was Mature B Lymphoid Cell Neoplasia (37.7%), and 60.8% of the patients had a diagnosis time of ≤ 3 years. PG-SGA revealed that 35.3% of the patients were malnourished; APMTD and HGSD revealed that 60.8% and 25.5% had reduced muscle strength, respectively. SARC-CalF exposed that 39.2% of the patients were at risk for sarcopenia. Significant associations were found between SARC-CalF and diagnosis time ≤ 3 years (p = 0.039), PG-SGA (p = 0.020), APMTD (p = 0.039) and HGSD (p = 0.002). After binary logistic regression adjusted for age and sex, the reduced HGSD remained associated with the risk of sarcopenia. Conclusion: SARC-CalF identified a risk of sarcopenia in 39.2% of patients. The reduced HGSD was associated with the risk of sarcopenia.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Handgrip strength (HGS) can be used to identify probable sarcopenia, by measuring maximum strength and/or through the average of three measurements. This study analyzed the agreement between maximum and mean HGS measurements in identifying probable sarcopenia in cancer patients. METHODS: Adult individuals of both sexes diagnosed with malignant neoplasm were evaluated. HGS (kg/f) was measured in both hands and nutritional status defined by the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). Bland-Altman, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), and Cronbach's Alpha tests were applied to assess the agreement between measurements. RESULTS: One hundred forty-one patients aged 60.0 ± 14.2 years were evaluated. There was a predominance of elderly (57.4%), male (53.2%), and non-white (58.2%) individuals, with tumors located in the lower gastrointestinal tract (GIT) (36.9%) and with suspected or some degree of malnutrition (61.0%). For men, the Bland-Altman test showed a mean error of 1.37 (95% CI-1.03 to 3.80) for dominant HGS (DHGS) and 1.50 (95% CI-1.60 to 4.60) for non-dominant HGS (NDHGS), while for women the values were 1.34 (95% CI-0.27 to 2.95) and 1.14 (95% CI-1.10 to 3.39), respectively. The ICC showed excellent reproducibility (> 0.90) and the Cronbach's Alpha was satisfactory (0.99). CONCLUSION: Despite the satisfactory agreement observed between maximum and mean HGS values, in this study, individuals of both sexes with probable sarcopenia were better identified through mean values.