https://doi.org/10.4081/aiua.2026.15532
Correlates of appendicular skeletal muscle mass in non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease men and the control group
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Published: 22 June 2026
Introduction: Skeletal muscle wasting is a serious complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with increased mortality. However, the main determinants of muscle atrophy in CKD are not yet well known and may differ in the general and CKD populations. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) and anthropometric measurements, body composition parameters as well as laboratory results, and compare these associations in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 and participants with eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2.
Methods: Two groups of male participants were included: 33 patients with eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 and 38 individuals with eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2. Muscle mass and body composition variables, including ASM, were assessed by bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS). Blood samples were taken to evaluate serum creatinine, urea, haemoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin.
Results: In both groups of patients ASM positively correlated with body mass, body mass index (BMI), lean tissue mass (LTM) and lean tissue indx (LTI) (p < 0.05 for all parameters). ASM positively correlated with height in individuals with eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 (p = 0.001). There was no statistically significant correlations between laboratory parameters and ASM in both groups.
Conclusions: ASM is associated significantly and positively with anthropometric and body composition parameters such as body mass, BMI, LTM and LTI both in patients with eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 and in those with eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 which suggests that the determinants of ASM are similar in CKD and in the general population.
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Ethics Approval
CRediT authorship contribution
Conceptualization, K.R. and K.S.; data curation, K.R.; formal analysis, K.S.; funding acquisition, S.N.; investigation, K.R. and A.R; methodology, K.R. and K.S.; project administration, A.R. and S.N.; resources, S.N.; supervision, S.N.; visualization, K.S.; writing - original draft preparation, K.R.; writing - review and editing, K.R.; K.S.; and S.N. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supporting Agencies
Data Availability Statement
The original dataset is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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