Myosteatosis in the liver transplant candidate: Is it the future prognostic marker ?

Delorme, Alicia [UCL] Goffaux, Alexis [UCL] De Azevedo Coutinho Pereira, David [UCL] Dumont, Colin [UCL] Philippart, Marie [UCL] Henin, Guillaume [UCL] Braem, Fredéric [UCL] Dubois, Elodie [UCL] Ciccarelli, Olga [UCL] Trefois, Pierre [UCL] Lanthier, Nicolas [UCL] Dahlqvist, Géraldine [UCL]

INTRODUCTION: The body composition of the cirrhotic patient plays an important role in his prognosis. Several factors such as loss of skeletal muscle mass, malnutrition, and frailty (assessed by liver frailty index LFI) are closely associated with an increased risk of mortality in the liver transplant list. Myosteatosis is defined as the pathological excess of fat within the muscle expressed as a lower mean skeletal muscle radiodensity on computed tomography. Several studies have recently observed a negative impact of myosteatosis on the outcome of cirrhotic patients as well as in the postoperative outcome of patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT). There are still questions about the impact of this myosteatosis on liver function and on muscles functionality. [...]