Dictionary

sarcopenia en · NOUN

Etymology

From sarco- + -penia; widely agreed to have been coined circa 1989 by Irwin H. Rosenberg.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Gradual loss of skeletal muscle due to aging, immobility, illness, or combinations thereof.
   • Factors contributing to frailty include sarcopenia and decline in executive function. 2008, Wilbert S. Aronow, Jerome L. Fleg, Michael W. Rich, Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly, 4th edition, Taylor & Francis, page 814:
   • 2021, Beatrice Gasperini, Stefano Volpato, Antonio Cherubini, Chapter 9: Acute Sarcopenia, Alfonso J. Cruz-Jentoft, John E. Morley (editors), Sarcopenia, John Wiley & Sons (Wiley Blackwell), 2nd Edition, page 96, The incidence of sarcopenia was investigated in the GLISTEN study. Sarcopenia at hospital admission was diagnosed in 227 (34.7%) patients.
   • When no evident cause of gradual-onset chronic sarcopenia is present in an older person, age-associated (primary) sarcopenia is diagnosed, and further examination of long-term habits that may have led to sarcopenia is appropriate. 2022, Jeffrey B. Halter, Joseph G. Ouslander, Stephanie Studenski, et al., Hazzard's Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, 8th edition, McGraw Hill, page 736:
   • Now, let me stop here to make a sort of plea. No decline with age is more dramatic or potentially more functionally significant than the decline in lean body mass. […] Think of the implication of this decrease in lean body mass in respect to the physical behavior of elderly subjects. There may be no single feature of age-related decline that could more dramatically affect ambulation, mobility, calorie intake, and overall nutrient intake and status, independence, breathing, etc. Why have we not given it more attention? Perhaps it needs a name derived from the Greek. I'll suggest a couple: sarcomalacia or sarcopenia. We might study more about the relationship between this decline and exercise; such studies are being done in some of the laboratories at our center. We know that elders can build and rebuild muscle mass. Even the frail elderly can recover function remarkably. I think this is am opportunity for some new attention that would pay off handsomely in maintaining the health and vigor that we described as a goal of our work. 1989, Irwin H. Rosenberg, “Summary comments”, in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, volume 50, number 5, →DOI, pages 1231-1233:

Forms

Coordinates

cachexia

Deriveds

osteosarcopenia · sarcopenic · presarcopenia

Hypernyms

wasting

Translations (9)

nl sarcopenia (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · la sarcopenia (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · kmr sarkopenî (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · pl sarkopenia (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · es sarcopenia (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · fr sarcopénie (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · fi sarkopenia (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · nl sarcopenie (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle) · nl spierverlies (gradual age-related loss of skeletal muscle)