Patient selection: adult
Analysis: CT scan of thorax and abdomen
CT cross-sections (see Figure 2):
(1) at T12: area of the left and right dorsal muscles
(2) at L4: area of both psoas muscles
(3) at L3: area of subcutaneous fat all around the torso
Parameters:
(1) T12 dorsal muscle group area in square mm, expressed as percentile of the population
(2) L4 total psoas muscle area in square mm, expressed as percentile of the population
(3) L3 subcutaneous fat area in square mm expressed as percentile of the population
morphic malnutrition score =
= 10.55 - (0.0343 * (percentile for subcutaneous fat area)) - (0.0274 * (percentile for total psoas area)) - (0.0494 * (percentile for dorsal muscle area)
Interpretation:
• Normal patients had an MMS with mean 3.8 +/- 2.0.
• The optimal cutoff for severe malnutrition was > 6.1.
Performance:
• The area under the ROC curve was 0.89 in the training set and 0.94 in the validation set.
