Journal of Clinical Hepatology
Porto-sinusoidal vascular disorder, or PSVD, is a rare liver disease involving abnormalities in the small vessels of the liver. It occurs without cirrhosis and may be present with or without portal hypertension. Little is known about how it affects skeletal muscle.
Researchers examined abdominal CT images from 132 people with PSVD and compared them with 132 healthy controls matched by age and sex. They assessed two forms of muscle deterioration: sarcopenia, involving reduced muscle mass, and myosteatosis, in which excess fat accumulates within muscle.
Muscle abnormalities were found in 43.18% of patients with PSVD, compared with 18.94% of healthy controls. Mild changes, defined as myosteatosis alone, affected 22.73% of patients, while 20.45% had more severe changes involving sarcopenia.
Importantly, muscle abnormalities occurred at similar rates in patients with and without portal hypertension: 42.17% and 44.90%, respectively. This suggests that the changes may relate to PSVD itself rather than being solely a consequence of portal hypertension.
Older age, a higher subcutaneous fat index, lower haemoglobin and longer thrombin time were independently associated with muscle abnormalities. Age and thrombin time were also associated with greater severity.
Loss of muscle mass and quality can reduce physical function, worsen quality of life and contribute to poorer outcomes in chronic liver disease. Because PSVD often preserves overall liver function, muscle deterioration may receive little attention during routine care.
The high prevalence found in this study suggests that CT scans already obtained for liver assessment could also be used to identify patients with muscle loss or fat infiltration. Earlier recognition may support nutritional assessment, exercise interventions and closer monitoring.
However, this was a cross-sectional, single-centre study, so it cannot establish when the muscle changes developed or what caused them. The healthy controls were hospital employees and may not represent the wider population. Muscle strength and physical performance were also not included in the assessment.
Objective: investigate the prevalence of muscle changes (including sarcopenia and myosteatosis) and related influencing factors in…
