Comparative analysis of physical performance tests to establish sarcopenia diagnosis in Asians suffering from heart failure with left ventricular systolic dysfunction

The 5-time sit-to-stand (5T-STS), short physical performance battery (SPPB), gait speed, and timed up-and-go (TUG) tests are available physical performance tests to diagnose sarcopenia. However, their performance in heart failure (HF) patients remains unclear. This study evaluated the performance of 5T-STS, gait speed, SPPB, and TUG tests in diagnosing sarcopenia in Asian patients with chronic HF. A cross-sectional study involving chronic HF patients with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction on optimal guideline-directed medical therapy was conducted. The 5T-STS, SPPB, gait speed, and TUG tests were conducted sequentially. Sarcopenia was confirmed by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia criteria. The diagnostic performance of physical performance tests was analyzed using Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis. A total of 32 patients were included in the data analysis. The TUG test demonstrated good diagnostic performance (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.8057; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.6271 to 0.9843), while the 5T-STS test showed fair diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.7657; 95% CI = 0.5860 to 0.9454). Gait speed exhibited very poor diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.5686; 95% CI = 0.3114 to 0.8257), and SPPB showed poor diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.6600; 95% CI = 0.4570 to 0.8630). With a cutoff of 8.64 s, the TUG test revealed a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 84.0% in detecting sarcopenia. The TUG test was the most efficient physical performance test used for establishing sarcopenia diagnosis in Asian patients with chronic HF and decreased LV systolic function.