ArticlePloS one2021
Masticatory muscle index for indicating skeletal muscle mass in patients with head and neck cancer.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 17 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- MRI-based measurement of masseter muscle area: reliability and clinical relevance in acute neck infections.European radiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Research progress on evaluation methods for skeletal muscle mass assessment in sarcopenia (Review).Oncology letters · 2025Review
- Unveiling the relation between swallowing muscle mass and skeletal muscle mass in head and neck cancer patients.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2025Article
- The role of radiotherapy planning images in monitoring malnutrition and predicting prognosis in head and neck cancer patients: a pilot study.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI-derived masseter muscle characteristics: a new diagnostic marker in head and neck cancer?BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Masseter muscle thickness is predictive of cancer cachexia in patients with head and neck cancer.Head & neck · 2024Article
- Feasibility of using cross-sectional area of masticatory muscles to predict sarcopenia in healthy aging subjects.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Correction: Masticatory muscle index for indicating skeletal muscle mass in patients with head and neck cancer.PloS one · 2024Article
- Role of sarcopenia on survival and treatment-related toxicity in head and neck cancer: a narrative review of current evidence and future perspectives.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2023Review
- Prognostic Impact of Sarcopenia's Occurrence during Radiotherapy in Oropharyngeal Cancer Patients.Cancers · 2023Article
- Assessing thickness and stiffness of superficial/deep masticatory muscles in orofacial pain: an ultrasound and shear wave elastography study.Annals of medicine · 2023Article
- Sex-Specific Cut-Off Values for Low Skeletal Muscle Mass to Identify Patients at Risk for Treatment-Related Adverse Events in Head and Neck Cancer.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Sarcopenia in head and neck cancer: A scoping review.PloS one · 2022Article
- Integrated bioinformatics, network pharmacology, and artificial intelligence to predict the mechanism of celastrol against muscle atrophy caused by colorectal cancer.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Measurement of Sarcopenia in Head and Neck Cancer Patients and Its Association With Frailty.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA typical assessment for sarcopenia involves the use of abdominal computed tomography (CT) for calculating the skeletal muscle index (SMI) at the level of the third lumbar vertebra (L3). However, abdominal CT is not regularly performed on patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). We investigated whether masticatory SMI (M-SMI) measurements based on head and neck CT scans can be used to conduct sarcopenia assessments by evaluating whether M-SMI is correlated with L3-SMI.
methodsAbdominal and head and neck CT images of patients with trauma (n = 50) and HNC (n = 52) were analyzed retrospectively. Both manual delineation and threshold selection methods were used to measure cross-sectional areas of masticatory muscles and those of muscles at the L3 level on CT images. Muscle cross-sectional areas were normalized to height squared to calculate SMI, and a multivariate linear regression model was established to evaluate the correlation between the M-SMI and L3-SMI. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to assess the ability of the M-SMI to identify sarcopenia, and Cox logistic regression was used to identify predictors of sarcopenia.
resultsPatients with HNC had significantly lower M-SMI and L3-SMI than did patients with trauma (p = 0.011 and 0.03, respectively). M-SMI and L3-SMI were strongly correlated (r = 0.901, p < 0.001); in the multivariate model that included sex, the correlation was stronger (r = 0.913, p < 0.001). The associations of sarcopenia with a lower M-SMI (p < 0.001), male sex (p = 0.028), and advanced age (p = 0.011) were significant, and multivariate logistic analysis demonstrated that an M-SMI of <5.5 was an independent predictor of sarcopenia (hazard ratio = 5.37, p < 0.001).
conclusionsM-SMI assessment in routine head and neck CT scans is feasible and can be an alternative for detecting sarcopenia in patients with HNC.
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