Non invasive testing of sarcopenia

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Feasibility of non-invasive assessment of Hospital related sarcopenia, and potential barriers and facilitators to its use to support rehabilitation interventions and mechanistic research.

• IRAS ID

  346957

• Contact name

  Paul Muckelt

• Contact email

  p.muckelt@soton.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Univeristy of Southampton

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Study title: Feasibility of non-invasive assessment of Hospital related sarcopenia, and potential barriers and facilitators to its use to support rehabilitation interventions and mechanistic research.

  Study design: feasibility study.

  Study duration: one year.

  Study participants: Patients undergoing an elective surgery with the gastrointestinal unit aged 35-85 from University Hospital Southampton.

  Planned size of sample: A sample size of 30 participants has been selected to assess multiple methods of measuring sarcopenia. This is a pilot proof-of principle study to generate the feasibility data.

  Primary Outcome: Feasibility of undertaking non-invasive measurements of muscle quality (ultrasound and MyotonPRO) in a perioperative care setting defined by number of successful measurements taken within the cohort and reporting of any barriers to assessment

  Secondary Outcomes:
  1. Recruitment outcome: patients to undergo assessment of muscle characteristics and physical measurements while under clinical care.
  2. To determine the feasibility of recruiting and retaining the patient cohort and undertaking the measurements.
  3. To understand if and how these non-invasive assessment tools this could be implemented into standard practice via focus groups with the multidisciplinary teams.
  4. To understand the acceptability of the non-invasive test along with the physical tests for both clinical staff and patients

  Exploratory Outcome:
  1. To examine the associations between muscle characteristics and EWGSOP outcome measures.
  2. Explore the relationship between Myoton/ultrasound techniques and L3 or thoracic CT single slice measurement or whole-body composition (if available).
  3. To also explore the associations between Myoton/ultrasound techniques and the measurements taken during CPET testing.
  

• REC name

  East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  25/EM/0152

• Date of REC Opinion

  2 Sep 2025

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion