Development of multiple biomarker panels for prediction of sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults

Background: It is required to consider multiple biomarkers simultaneously to predict sarcopenia and to under-stand its complex pathological mechanisms. This study aimed to develop multiple biomarker panels for pre-dicting sarcopenia in older adults and to further examine its association with the incidence of sarcopenia.Methods: A total of 1,021 older adults were selected from the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study. Sarcopenia was defined by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 criteria. Among the 14 biomarker candidates at baseline, eight biomarkers that could optimally detect individuals with sarcopenia were selected to develop a multi-biomarker risk score (range from 0 to 10). The utility of developed multi-biomarker risk score in discriminating sarcopenia was investigated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.Results: The multi-biomarker risk score had an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.71 with an optimal cut-off of 1.76 score, which was significantly higher than all single biomarkers with AUC of <0.7 (all, p<0.01). During the two-year follow-up, the incidence of sarcopenia was 11.1%. Continuous multi-biomarker risk score was posi-tively associated with incidence of sarcopenia after adjusting confounders (odds ratio [OR]=1.63; 95% confi-dence interval [CI]=1.23-2.17). Participants with a high risk score had higher odds of sarcopenia than those with a low risk score (OR=1.82; 95% CI=1.04-3.19).Conclusions: Multi-biomarker risk score, which was a combination of eight biomarkers with different patho-physiologies, better discriminated the presence of sarcopenia than a single biomarker, and it could further predict the incidence of sarcopenia over two years in older adults.

Automated summary

This study aimed to develop multiple biomarker panels to predict sarcopenia in older adults and explore its association with sarcopenia incidence. By analyzing data from 1,021 older adults, 8 optimal biomarkers were selected to develop a multi-biomarker risk score, which showed better discrimination for sarcopenia than single biomarkers according to receiver operating characteristic analysis. During a two-year follow-up, the incidence of sarcopenia was found to be positively associated with the continuous multi-biomarker risk score. In conclusion, the multi-biomarker risk score can effectively predict sarcopenia and its incidence in older adults.