Recently metabolic aspects linked to sarcopenic obesity (SO) were investigated. Extant studies involved especially older people from Asian or White-mixed American cohorts. The aims of our study were: to explore the prevalence of sarcopenia in Caucasian adult obese subjects using two different indices of sarcopenia, and to investigate the relationship among SO, metabolic syndrome (MS), inflammation, and serum albumin concentrations.

Cross- sectional study.

The study was performed from 2011 to 2014 in a hospitalized care setting. Inclusion criteria were: age>18 and <65 years, BMI=30 Kg/m². Fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) were assessed by DXA. Appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASMM) was calculated. Sarcopenia was defined as ASMM/height² or ASMM/weight <2SD than the sex-specific mean of a young population. The cutoffs were ASMM/h2<6.54 Kg/m² for men and 4.82 Kg/m² for women, and ASMM/weight<0.2827 for men and 0.2347 for women. ISI-Matsuda was calculated. MS was diagnosed (NCEP-ATPIII).

727 subjects (age: 45.72±13.56 years, BMI: 37.74±5.82 kg/m²) were enrolled. The prevalence of SO was 1.0% or 34.8% in men and 0.6% or 50.1% in women, using ASMM/height2 ratio or ASMM/weight. Subjects with SO based on ASMM/height2 were scarce, only data relying on ASMM/weight were considered. Subjects with SO had higher BMI, waist circumference, FM, and lower FFM and ASMM than nonsarcopenic obese individuals (all p<0.05). ISI-Matsuda was lower and hs-CRP levels were higher in subjects with SO (all p<0.05). MS was more prevalent in subjects with SO than nonsarcopenic obese subjects (47.6% vs 34.3%, p<0.001). ASMM/weight was decreased in subjects with MS (0.2522±0.0410 vs 0.2423±0.0352, p=0.001).

SO is associated with MS and low- grade inflammation in adult Caucasian subjects. Metabolic profile evaluation should be recommended in subjects with SO.