Adverse Outcomes and Mortality in Liver Transplant
Study Details
Study Description
Brief Summary
Prospective natural history pilot study to explore the link between muscle composition using an MRI-based Muscle Assessment Score (MAsS) and adverse outcomes in liver transplant candidates.
Condition or Disease | Intervention/Treatment | Phase |
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N/A |
Detailed Description
Sarcopenia, characterized by the progressive loss of muscle volume and function, is a common and major complication in end-stage liver disease which significantly contributes to adverse outcomes and mortality as well as hampers successful outcomes for treatments such as liver transplant (LT). High resolution image-based techniques have been instrumental in furthering our understanding of body composition in sarcopenia specifically and human health in general. While several methods exist to evaluate body composition, imaging techniques, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enable capitalization of images taken as part of standard practice as well as append already clinical examinations with brief sequences tailored for mapping muscle and body composition. Opportunistic application of this imaging-based body composition assessment to patients in a liver transplant context has revealed a high prevalence of sarcopenia (low muscle volume relative to age and sex) and pathological muscle fat infiltration (myosteatosis). Furthermore, a recent long-term (6-years post-LT) MRI-based retrospective study showed associations of myosteatosis to increased graft loss and mortality after transplant.
The combination of MRI-based thigh muscle volume and fat infiltration has been suggested as a more complete description of muscle composition with a stronger link to hospitalization, poor functional activities of daily life, and metabolic co-morbidities in general population and subjects presenting with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. A recently submit paper explored the predictive power of this combination based on 40 000 participants in the UK biobank and found that the presence of adverse muscle composition, that is the combination of lower-than-expected muscle volume and high muscle fat infiltration, showed to be a strong and independent predictor of all-cause mortality comparable to that of previous cancer diagnosis and smoking. The same MRI-sequence and body composition assessment has successfully been implemented in small pilot studies before and after LT, both within weeks and years after LT, and presented at recent scientific conferences.
There is a lack of knowledge in how to fully identity patients indicted for liver transplant that are of very high risk for adverse outcomes and mortality in standardized fashion. The aim is to use an MRI-based Muscle Assessment Score (MAsS), which includes both muscle volume and fat infiltration, at the transplant candidacy evaluation and other follow-up MRI examinations as clinically indicated, as an objective, standardized, and quantitative measure of muscle health and explore the link between muscle composition and adverse outcomes and mortality. In addition, there are growing numbers of high-risk donor livers, such as presenting with steatosis or exposed to prolonged ischemia time. A co-primary aim is to gather information on the association between transplant recipient muscle composition and donor liver characteristics to one-year post-LT adverse outcomes and mortality.
Study Design
Arms and Interventions
Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
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Experimental: Define MAsS cut-point at transplant evaluation to identify those with high risk for adverse outcomes
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Diagnostic Test: MAsS
Add MAsS to standard of care MRI scan
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Outcome Measures
Primary Outcome Measures
- Muscle assessment score (MAsS) [1 year]
The MAsS is a composite score of muscle fat index (% of muscle fat normalized to sex, weight in kg and height in meters) and muscle volume index (muscle volume in liters normalized to patient sex, height in meters and weight in kg)
- Adverse outcomes [1 year]
Number of pre- and post-transplant inpatient days
- Adverse outcomes [1 year]
Number of pre- and post-transplant ICU days
- Adverse outcomes [1 year]
Number of days alive outside of the hospital in the first year after liver transplant
- Adverse outcomes [1 year]
Mortality within the first year after liver transplant
- MAsS changes while waiting for liver transplant [1 year]
In patients who remain on the waitlist, serial MAsS measurements (see Outcome 1) will be taken and changes over time will be assessed
Eligibility Criteria
Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
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All patients with end-stage liver disease undergoing evaluation for liver transplantation
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Patient clinically indicated for MRI during transplant candidacy evaluation
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Adult
Exclusion Criteria:
- Contra indication to MRI
Contacts and Locations
Locations
Site | City | State | Country | Postal Code | |
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1 | Mayo Clinic Arizona | Phoenix | Arizona | United States | 85259 |
Sponsors and Collaborators
- Mayo Clinic
- Amra Medical AB
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Elizabet Carey, MD, Mayo Cinic
Study Documents (Full-Text)
None provided.More Information
Publications
- Borga M, Thomas EL, Romu T, Rosander J, Fitzpatrick J, Dahlqvist Leinhard O, Bell JD. Validation of a fast method for quantification of intra-abdominal and subcutaneous adipose tissue for large-scale human studies. NMR Biomed. 2015 Dec;28(12):1747-53. doi: 10.1002/nbm.3432. Epub 2015 Nov 2.
- Borga M, West J, Bell JD, Harvey NC, Romu T, Heymsfield SB, Dahlqvist Leinhard O. Advanced body composition assessment: from body mass index to body composition profiling. J Investig Med. 2018 Jun;66(5):1-9. doi: 10.1136/jim-2018-000722. Epub 2018 Mar 25. Review.
- Carey EJ, Lai JC, Sonnenday C, Tapper EB, Tandon P, Duarte-Rojo A, Dunn MA, Tsien C, Kallwitz ER, Ng V, Dasarathy S, Kappus M, Bashir MR, Montano-Loza AJ. A North American Expert Opinion Statement on Sarcopenia in Liver Transplantation. Hepatology. 2019 Nov;70(5):1816-1829. doi: 10.1002/hep.30828. Epub 2019 Aug 19.
- Feng S, Goodrich NP, Bragg-Gresham JL, Dykstra DM, Punch JD, DebRoy MA, Greenstein SM, Merion RM. Characteristics associated with liver graft failure: the concept of a donor risk index. Am J Transplant. 2006 Apr;6(4):783-90. Erratum in: Am J Transplant. 2018 Dec;18(12):3085.
- Flores A, Asrani SK. The donor risk index: A decade of experience. Liver Transpl. 2017 Sep;23(9):1216-1225. doi: 10.1002/lt.24799. Review.
- Karlsson A, Rosander J, Romu T, Tallberg J, Grönqvist A, Borga M, Dahlqvist Leinhard O. Automatic and quantitative assessment of regional muscle volume by multi-atlas segmentation using whole-body water-fat MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2015 Jun;41(6):1558-69. doi: 10.1002/jmri.24726. Epub 2014 Aug 11.
- Linge J, Borga M, West J, Tuthill T, Miller MR, Dumitriu A, Thomas EL, Romu T, Tunón P, Bell JD, Dahlqvist Leinhard O. Body Composition Profiling in the UK Biobank Imaging Study. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2018 Nov;26(11):1785-1795. doi: 10.1002/oby.22210. Epub 2018 May 22.
- Linge J, Ekstedt M, Dahlqvist Leinhard O. Adverse muscle composition is linked to poor functional performance and metabolic comorbidities in NAFLD. JHEP Rep. 2020 Oct 28;3(1):100197. doi: 10.1016/j.jhepr.2020.100197. eCollection 2021 Feb.
- Linge J, Heymsfield SB, Dahlqvist Leinhard O. On the Definition of Sarcopenia in the Presence of Aging and Obesity-Initial Results from UK Biobank. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2020 Jun 18;75(7):1309-1316. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glz229.
- Linge J, Petersson M, Forsgren MF, Sanyal AJ, Dahlqvist Leinhard O. Adverse muscle composition predicts all-cause mortality in the UK Biobank imaging study. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2021 Dec;12(6):1513-1526. doi: 10.1002/jcsm.12834. Epub 2021 Oct 29.
- Montano-Loza AJ, Angulo P, Meza-Junco J, Prado CM, Sawyer MB, Beaumont C, Esfandiari N, Ma M, Baracos VE. Sarcopenic obesity and myosteatosis are associated with higher mortality in patients with cirrhosis. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2016 May;7(2):126-35. doi: 10.1002/jcsm.12039. Epub 2015 Jun 9.
- Shenvi SD, Taber DJ, Hardie AD, Botstein JO, McGillicuddy JW. Assessment of magnetic resonance imaging derived fat fraction as a sensitive and reliable predictor of myosteatosis in liver transplant recipients. HPB (Oxford). 2020 Jan;22(1):102-108. doi: 10.1016/j.hpb.2019.06.006. Epub 2019 Aug 9.
- West J, Dahlqvist Leinhard O, Romu T, Collins R, Garratt S, Bell JD, Borga M, Thomas L. Feasibility of MR-Based Body Composition Analysis in Large Scale Population Studies. PLoS One. 2016 Sep 23;11(9):e0163332. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163332. eCollection 2016.
- West J, Romu T, Thorell S, Lindblom H, Berin E, Holm AS, Åstrand LL, Karlsson A, Borga M, Hammar M, Leinhard OD. Precision of MRI-based body composition measurements of postmenopausal women. PLoS One. 2018 Feb 7;13(2):e0192495. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192495. eCollection 2018.
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