Findings among elderly patients with cardiovascular disease
TUESDAY, Jan. 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Mid upper arm circumference (AC) is an independent predictor of survival in older adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a study published in the Jan. 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
Kentaro Kamiya, P.T., Ph.D., from Kitasato University Hospital in Sagamihara, Japan, and colleagues compared the prognostic predictive capabilities of AC and calf circumference (CC) in 599 older patients (≥65 years) with CVD. Muscle function (MF) was measured using gait speed and grip strength.
Over a median of 1.63 years of follow up, 72 deaths occurred. The researchers found that high AC and high CC both were associated with better outcome; however, only AC, not CC, showed significant independent prognostic capability after adjusting for other prognostic factors (adjusted hazard ratio per SD increase, 0.56 [P = 0.023] and 0.91 [P = 0.696], respectively). Adding AC to MF, but not CC to MF, significantly increased the area under the curve on receiver operating characteristic curve (P = 0.005 and 0.188, respectively).
“A high AC, but not CC, was an independent predictor of survival and could be a readily available and simple metric for risk stratification in older patients with CVD,” the authors write.
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