[Sarcopenia: is a clinical diagnosis possible?].

Sarcopenia increases the risk of falls and fractures, as well as being related to various diseases and increased mortality. Different research groups propose different definitions that include the measurement of muscle mass by DXA and the assessment of hand grip strength through a hand dynamometer. However, these 2 instruments are not usually available in clinical practice. Our objective was to determine the diagnostic utility of 2 physical performance tests: gait speed and sit to stand test, as tools for the detection of patients with probable sarcopenia. A total of 706 women between 50 and 85 years of age were included and 376 of them completed the evaluation with the measurement of muscle mass. Anthropometric measurements were taken and physical performance was evaluated. We found that 26.1% registered a reduced gait speed while 55.3% presented alterations in performing the sit to stand test. The prevalence of sarcopenia ranged from 4.5% to 35% depending on the criteria used. Both tests showed a high negative predictive value (>70%) for the diagnosis of sarcopenia, while the sit to stand test also showed high sensitivity (>66%) for this diagnosis. We concluded that the implementation, in the clinical practice, of these easy and free tests would simplify the detection of patients with probable sarcopenia.