Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
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A precise quantitative measurement of skeletal muscle mass is fundamental for diagnosing sarcopenia in older individuals. The current techniques of assessment, including dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), bioimpedance analysis (BIA), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are either difficult to perform in everyday clinical practice or biased by concurrent clinical confounders. B-mode muscle ultrasound can be helpful in assessing muscle mass and architecture, and thus possibly useful for diagnosing or screening sarcopenia. ⋯ The current literature does not allow to make conclusive recommendations about the use of muscle ultrasound in geriatric practice. However, this technique is very promising, and further studies should validate its applications in the context of sarcopenia assessment.