Adults with lower muscle mass had poorer results and more problems. It is uncertain how sarcopenia affects paediatric outcomes. The goal of this study was to establish reference values for lean muscle mass in a healthy paediatric population in order to allow future research on the influence of lean muscle mass on paediatric outcomes. In a healthy juvenile population undergoing post-trauma assessment, computed tomography was used to evaluate the surface area of the psoas muscles on both sides. Pearson correlation coefficients for age, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), total psoas muscle area, and psoas muscle index were computed. The psoas muscle area and PMI percentiles were calculated using quantile regression for each age and gender. The study included 494 male and 288 female patients who had accessible imaging. Age was shown to be substantially associated with total psoas volume, height, and weight in males, but not to BMI. Age was substantially associated with total psoas volume, height, and weight in females, but not to BMI. Gender-specific curves and charts were generated using quantile regression output from reference values of total psoas muscle area corresponding to the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles across all ages.
Based on age, researchers developed gender-specific reference charts for total and height-normalized psoas muscle area in healthy children. These findings can be used in future research to determine the consequences of sarcopenia in paediatric patients.
