An interventional study of Physical exercise in Frailty, Sarcopenia and Ultrasonography, sponsored by University of Deusto. Completed at 3 sites in Spain. Open to participants aged 65 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-04.
Sponsored by University of Deusto · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
We are conducting a study in different centers in Spain in elderly people, in order to assess the effectiveness of a physical exercise intervention program in people in a situation of frailty. Frailty in an elderly person is a situation in which, although there are no major differences in their usual abilities, the person presents a certain decrease in their capacities. This slight decrease is usually accompanied by a progressive deterioration.
Background: Frailty derived from muscle quality loss can potentially be delayed through early detection and physical exercise interventions. There is a need for affordable tools for the objective evaluation of muscle quality, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal assessment. Literature suggests that quantitative analysis of ultrasound data captures morphometric, compositional and microstructural muscle properties, while biological essays derived from blood samples are associated with functional information. The aim of this study is to evaluate multi-parametric combinations of ultrasound and blood-based biomarkers to provide a cross-sectional evaluation of the patient frailty phenotype and to monitor muscle quality changes associated with supervised exercise programs.
Methods: This is a prospective observational multi-center study including patients older than 70 years with ability to give informed consent. We will recruit 100 patients from hospital environments and 100 from primary care facilities. At least two exams per patient (baseline and follow-up), with a total of (with a minimum total of 400 exams) exams. In the hospital environments, 50 patients will be measured pre/post a 16-week individualized and supervised exercise programme, and 50 patients will be followed-up after the same period without intervention. The primary care patients will undergo a one-year follow-up evaluation. The primary goal is to compare cross-sectional evaluations of physical performance, functional capacity, body composition and derived scales of sarcopenia and frailty with biomarker combinations obtained from muscle ultrasound and blood-based essays. We will analyze ultrasound raw data obtained with a point-of-care device, and a set of biomarkers previously associated with frailty by quantitative Real time PCR (qRT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Secondly, we will analyze the sensitivity of these biomarkers to detect short-term muscle quality changes as well as functional improvement after a supervised exercise intervention with respect to usual care.
Discussion: The presented study protocol will combine portable technologies based on quantitative muscle ultrasound and blood biomarkers for objective cross-sectional assessment of muscle quality in both hospital and primary care settings. It aims to provide data to investigate associations between biomarker combinations with cross-sectional clinical assessment of frailty and sarcopenia, as well as musculoskeletal changes after multicomponent physical exercise programs.
1,199 studies on the registry are indexed under Frailty; 430 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 85 is close to the median of 80 across 681 interventional studies indexed under Frailty.
Browse Frailty studies →University of Deusto is the lead sponsor of 20 studies on the registry; 7 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Hospital control cohort: Participants will be consecutively recruited from the scheduled patient list of the frailty unit, day hospital, and the outpatient clinic of the Geriatrics Department of Hospital 2. After obtaining informed consent, baseline study variables will be collected. Patients will be followed-up for a 16-week period, under usual care. After the follow-up period, baseline evaluation will be repeated.
Elderly people without muscle problems participating in the exercise program to see improvements in their muscle mass levels and quality
Other: Physical exercise
Primary care cohort: Participants will be consecutively recruited from the scheduled patient list of the Primary Care Units. After informed consent acquisition, baseline study variables will be collected. Patients will be followed-up during one year, under usual care. After the one-year follow-up, the baseline evaluation will be repeated.
1\. Hospital exercise cohort: Participants will be consecutively recruited from the scheduled patient list of the falls unit and the outpatient clinics of Hospital 1. After informed consent acquisition, patients will receive a baseline clinical evaluation. Ultrasound measurements and DXA scan will be conducted, and blood samples will be collected, processed, and stored. Patients will be included in the 16-week multicomponent physical exercise program described below. After the completion of the exercise program, at 16-week follow-up, clinical evaluation, ultrasound, DXA, and blood-sample testing will be repeated.
Biomarker - Quality of Life - Muscle mass
Association between quantitative ultrasound biomarkers associated to muscle mass and quality and extracted from raw data and blood-based biomarkers and combinations thereof with clinical variables including frailty, sarcopenia, physical function, disability, nutritional status, body composition, and Quality of Life in three cohorts of older adults: hospital control cohort, hospital exercise cohort, and primary care cohort. Muscle quality and mass: Ultrasound. Thickness (mm), cross-sectional area (cm²), perimeter (mm) and pennation angle (°). Frailty: FRAIL scale range 0-5. Frailty phenotype (0-5). Sarcopenia: SARC-F scale (0-10). Disability: GDS, 7 stages. Barthel index (0-100). Lawton and Brody index 0-8. Physical function: SPPB (0-12). IPAQ (0-3). Gait speed test, seconds. Grip strength, Jamar dynamometer, kilograms. Quality of life: EQ 5D-5L, scale of 0-100. Blood biomarkers: Vitamin D, Lutein zeaxanthin, Troponin T, Pro-BNP, and sRAGE with ELISA, miRNAs (qRT-PCR).
Time frame: 2 years
Plan to share: No
This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of Deusto