Low muscle mass and inflammation among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Indonesia.

Introduction: Chronic inflammation, as observed in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), is associated with complications. How chronic inflammation influences body composition in patients with T2DM remains to be investigated. Our study aimed to evaluate the difference of skeletal muscle mass between patients with and without inflammation indicated by plasma high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP).

Methods: Patients with T2DM were recruited from primary health care in Sleman district, Indonesia. Measurements were performed to obtain information on body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, total body fat, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, mid-upper arm circumference, and muscle mass. Spearman's rank correlation was performed to test the correlation between hs-CRP level and several components of body composition. To test the difference of percent skeletal muscle mass between subjects with and without inflammation (hs-CRP ≥ 3 or < 3 mg/dL), general linear model was utilized with adjustment for several variables. Analysis with value of less than 0.05 is considered statistically significant.

Result: In all subjects, hs-CRP is correlated with skeletal muscle mass (: - 0.343;  = 0.04), total body fat (: 0.353;  = 0.04), and subcutaneous fat (: 0.369;  = 0.02) but not visceral fat (: - 0.065;  = ns). Significant difference of skeletal muscle mass between subjects with and without inflammation was found in all and female subjects after adjustment for covariates.

Conclusion: There was a negative correlation between skeletal muscle mass percentage and inflammation indicated by hs-CRP in type 2 diabetes patients.