RESULTS
Among the 445 patients admitted to the tertiary general ICU, 105 patients were found to meet the study inclusion criteria. Twelve patients with incomplete data were excluded from the study. Data of the remaining 93 patients were analyzed (Figure 1).
There was no statistically difference between men and women in terms of the frequency of sarcopenia (p>0.05). BMI was higher in nonsarcopenic patients than sarcopenic patients (25.6±3.5 vs 24.2±4.8, p<0.05). Fifty five (59%) of all patients were found as sarcopenic (p<0.05). The characteristics of the patients, reasons for admission to the ICU and comorbidities were similar between goups (p>0.05) (Table 1). The presence of sarcopenia, and APACHE II and SOFA scores were similar between groups (p> 0.05). Prealbumin levels were significantly lower in the sarcopenic group (p <0.001). Vit D, albumin, urea, creatinine, nutrition status and mechanical ventilation time were not different between the groups (p> 0.05). The length of stay in ICU and in hospital were 27.8±29.7 and 33.0±31.2 days in sarcopenic patients, 15.1±17 and 23.8±21.3 days in nonsarcopenic patients respectively (p <0.05). Mortality was found to be 49.1% in patients with sarcopenia, and this value was found to higher in non-sarcopenic patients (Table 2). SMI was lower in patients over the age of 70 compared to those older than 40 (p <0.05) (Table 3).