Feasibility and Reliability of the Muscle Sound® Technique in Morbidly Obesity Population

In obesity, muscle mass is estimated to be relatively low. A low muscle mass together with high fat mass is also called sarcopenic obesity. Sarcopenic obesity has been associated higher risks of diabetes mellitus type 2 and hypertension, compared to general obesity. Sarcopenic obesity is also characterized by lower psychological health, quality of life and all-cause mortality compared to general obesity. This indicates that it is important to preserve muscle mass during weight loss, which leads to a need for validated methods for estimating muscle mass in obese populations. Recently new software to quantify muscle with ultrasonography has been developed (Muscle Sound®). This software has been validated in healthy adults, athletes and critically ill patients. However, this software has yet to be validated in an obese population. The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and reproducibility of Muscle Sound® in a morbid obese population.

Study design: This study is a prospective observational study to look at the feasibility and reproducibility of ultrasonography to quantify muscle.
Study population: The population will consist of patients approved for bariatric surgery at the Center for Obesity Netherlands (CON) according to the guidelines of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO).
Main study parameters/endpoints: The main endpoint is the feasibility of Muscle Sound® by using the percentage of successful measurements.

Muscle Sound® Technique is a feasible method to quantify muscle mass in a morbidly obese population

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