Is the Thoracic and Back Muscle Mass Associated with Disease Severity in Patients with COVID-19?

OBJECTIVE: With this study, it was aimed to investigate whether the thoracic muscle mass of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 was related to disease severity and disease characteristics and to evaluate whether muscle mass measurement had a predictive effect on predicting disease severity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two hundred twenty-three subjects (patient group = 161 and control = 62) who presented to our coronavirus disease 2019 outpatient clinic between May 2020 and September 2020 were included in the study. The medication, oxygen, and intubation requirements of the patients and their disease duration and hospital stay were also recorded. At the T4 level, thoracic and back (pectoralis, intercostalis, paraspinals, serratus, and latissimus dorsi) muscles and at the T12 level erector spinae muscles were measured in terms of area (cm(2)). RESULTS: T4-level muscle cross-sectional area results were found to be negatively correlated with the presence of pneumonia and the requirement of oxygen and intubation. In addition, both T4- and T12-level muscle cross-sectional area results were factors associated with oxygen and intubation requirements. T4-level muscle cross-sectional area results were also associated with the presence of pneumonia. CONCLUSION: We predict that there may be a relationship between the decrease in the mass of the accessory respiratory muscles and the severity of the disease.