Low appendicular muscle mass is associated with mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients: a single-center cohort study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: There are few studies of the association between low appendicular muscle mass (LAM) and clinical outcomes in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. We aimed to determine the clinical association between LAM and clinical outcomes in PD patients. SUBJECT/METHODS: We reviewed all PD patients who underwent PD between January 2001 and April 2014. Each patient's appendicular lean mass was estimated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The appendicular muscle mass index (AMI) was calculated using total appendicular lean mass (kg) over body mass index (kg/m(2)). The cut-off AMI value for LAM was <0.789 for men and <0.512 for women. RESULTS: The number of patients in the Non-LAM and LAM groups was 328 and 303, respectively. The median follow-up durations in the Non-LAM and LAM groups were 47 and 49 months, respectively. The numbers of deaths in the Non-LAM and LAM groups were 96 (29.3%) and 160 (52.8%), respectively. In a comparison with the Non-LAM group, the hazard ratio in the LAM group was 1.74 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.35-2.24) in univariate and 1.71 (95% CI, 1.28-2.26) in multivariate Cox regression analysis. In addition, the hazard ratio for a 0.1 increase in baseline AMI was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.84-0.95) in univariate analysis and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.76-0.91) in multivariate analysis. Analyses using the 1-year AMI showed trends similar to those for the initial AMI. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed the association of LAM with mortality in the incident PD patients.