Prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with chronic intestinal failure—how are SARC‐F and the EWGSOP algorithm associated before and after a physical exercise intervention

INTRODUCTION: Patients with chronic intestinal failure (IF) have a low degree of physical activity, decreased muscle mass, and decreased muscle strength, leading to a high risk of sarcopenia. We aimed to test the prevalence of sarcopenia by the use of SARC‐F and EWGSOP and to investigate the association between the two at baseline and after 12 weeks of an exercise intervention. METHODS: Thirty‐one patients with chronic IF completed 12 weeks of three weekly home‐based individualized exercise sessions. Body composition was measured by bioimpedance analysis and physical function by handgrip strength (HGS) and timed up‐and‐go (TUG). Sarcopenia was assessed by SARC‐F and EWGSOP. Multiple regression analysis was used to test for the association between the two tools. RESULTS: The prevalence of sarcopenia measured by EWGSOP was 59%. This prevalence did not change after the intervention. At baseline, 38.8% of patients were screened as at risk for sarcopenia by SARC‐F. This decreased to 29.0% after the intervention (P < 0.001). A statistically significant increase was achieved in muscle mass (P = 0.017) and muscle mass index (P = 0.016). Furthermore, both TUG (P = 0.033) and HGS (P = 0.019) improved. CONCLUSIONS: Sarcopenia is prevalent in patients with chronic IF. EWGSOP finds more patients to be at risk of sarcopenia than SARC‐F but was not sufficiently sensitive to measure changes induced by the physical intervention. The significant change in SARC‐F may illustrate that patients, themselves, find an improvement in self‐perceived health.