An interventional study of MAsS in End Stage Liver DIsease, Sarcopenia and Sarcopenic Obesity, sponsored by Mayo Clinic. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-05.
Sponsored by Mayo Clinic · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic
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.
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.
154 studies on the registry are indexed under End Stage Liver Disease; 30 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 100 is above the median of 63 across 94 interventional studies indexed under End Stage Liver Disease.
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Exclusion Criteria:
1. Contra indication to MRI
Diagnostic Test: MAsS
Add MAsS to standard of care MRI scan
Muscle assessment score (MAsS)
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)
Time frame: 1 year
Adverse outcomes
Number of pre- and post-transplant inpatient days
Time frame: 1 year
Adverse outcomes
Number of pre- and post-transplant ICU days
Time frame: 1 year
Adverse outcomes
Number of days alive outside of the hospital in the first year after liver transplant
Time frame: 1 year
Adverse outcomes
Mortality within the first year after liver transplant
Time frame: 1 year
MAsS changes while waiting for liver transplant
In patients who remain on the waitlist, serial MAsS measurements (see Outcome 1) will be taken and changes over time will be assessed
Time frame: 1 year
Plan to share: No
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