Muscle mass predicts outcomes following liver transplantation
Andrea DiMartini, Ruy J. Cruz, Mary Amanda Dew, Larissa Myaskovsky, Bret Goodpaster, Kristen Fox, Kevin H. Kim, Paulo Fontes – 20 August 2013 – For patients with end‐stage liver disease, commonly used indices of nutritional status (ie, body weight and body mass index) are often inflated because of fluid overload (ie, ascites and peripheral edema), and this results in an underdiagnosis of malnutrition. Because muscle is the largest protein reservoir in the body, an estimate of the muscle mass may be a more reliable and valid estimate of nutritional status.