Assessment of Sarcopenia Risk Factors in Relation to Muscle Histopathology and Morphology: An Autopsy Study

Abstract

Physical inactivity, malnutrition, smoking, excessive sleep duration, and diabetes have been associated with an increased risk of sarcopenia. This study aims to elucidate the relationship between sarcopenia risk factors and the histopathological and morphometric characteristics of striated muscles, as well as to assess the findings in light of the existing literature. Histopathological and morphometric evaluations were performed on samples taken from the deltoid, intercostal, and psoas muscles of 88 autopsy cases over one year. A statistically significant decrease in muscle fibre width was observed, particularly in psoas muscle samples, after the age of 30–50 years. In our study, the observation that muscle fibre diameters were lower in individuals classified as obese compared to other BMI groups only in the deltoid muscle group suggests that the impact of BMI may vary across different muscle groups. We believe that the effects of sarcopenia risk factors on muscle structure can be further elucidated through large-scale population-based studies examining individual cases in more detail.