Sonographic Assessment of Sarcopenia in Advanced Heart Failure Patients

Heart failure is an epidemic affecting more than 6 million Americans today with a rising prevalence. A subset of patients will progress to develop end stage or stage D heart failure. This subgroup of patients exhibits the highest morbidity and mortality rates of all heart failure patients. Sarcopenia, or muscle wasting out of proportion to normal aging, is a common comorbidity seen in stage D heart failure and acts as both a marker of disease severity as well as a contributing factor to increasing morbidity, mortality and heath care costs. Identification of sarcopenia is limited due to lack of diagnostic criteria as well as limitations to currently employed diagnostic techniques. Novel ultrasound evaluation of quality and quantity of muscle using cutting edge technology and algorithms shows promise as a new tool for sarcopenia diagnosis. To date, these ultrasound techniques have not been studied in the heart failure population. Our study proposes to evaluate the utility of ultrasound derived metrics for identification of sarcopenia in heart failure patients as well as to demonstrate reversibility of sarcopenia after HT or LVAD implantation.