nutrients Review Reference Values for Skeletal Muscle Mass – Current Concepts and Methodological Considerations Carina O. Walowski 1, Wiebke Braun 1, Michael J. Maisch 2, Björn Jensen 2, Sven Peine 3, Kristina Norman 4,5, Manfred J. Müller 1 and Anja Bosy-Westphal 1,* 1 Institute for Human Nutrition and Food Science, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, 24105 Kiel, Germany;
[email protected] (C.O.W.);
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[email protected] (M.J.M.) 2 seca gmbh & co. kg., Hammer Steindamm 3-25, 22089 Hamburg, Germany;
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[email protected] (B.J.) 3 Institute for Transfusion Medicine, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany;
[email protected] 4 Department of Nutrition and Gerontology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbruecke, 14558 Berlin, Germany;
[email protected] 5 Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Berlin Institute of Health, 13347 Berlin, Germany * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-(0)431-880-5674 Received: 17 February 2020; Accepted: 9 March 2020; Published: 12 March 2020 Abstract: Assessment of a low skeletal muscle mass (SM) is important for diagnosis of ageing and disease-associated sarcopenia and is hindered by heterogeneous methods and terminologies that lead to differences in diagnostic criteria among studies and even among consensus definitions. The aim of this review was to analyze and summarize previously published cut-offs for SM applied in clinical and research settings and to facilitate comparison of results between studies. Multiple published reference values for discrepant parameters of SM were identified from 64 studies and the underlying methodological assumptions and limitations are compared including different concepts for normalization of SM for body size and fat mass (FM).