Anticholesteremic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Atherosclerosis ; drug therapy ; Ezetimibe ; therapeutic use ; Humans

Chronic heart failure(CHF) is the end stage of various cardiovascular diseases and is one of the common diseases among the elderly in China. Sarcopenia is a geriatric syndrome characterized by the age-related loss of skeletal muscle quantity and/or mass and the decline in muscle strength and/or physical performance. There is a common pathophysiological mechanism of CHF and sarcopenia, and they interact with each other and influence each other′s prognosis. There are few confirmed effective treatments for sarcopenia, and even fewer measures that can help slow the progression of both syndromes. However, on the basis of heart failure treatment hormone therapy, exercise training and nutritional support may slow the progression of sacopenia. This article reviews the recent advances in the relationship between elderly CHF patients with sarcopenia and related treatment.

Objective:To observe the clinical effect of Senling Baizhu san (SLBZS) on patients with sarcopenia.Methods:Eighty patients with spleen-stomach weakness sarcopenia admitted to the department of geriatrics of Hangzhou Third People's Hospital from January 2018 to March 2020 were enrolled. The patients were divided into control group and observation group by random number table method, 40 cases in each group. All patients were treated with conventional Western medicine, and the observation group was treated with SLBZS 100 mL, twice a day, on the basis of conventional Western medicine. The course of the treatments was 12 weeks. Grip strength and walking speed were recorded before and after treatment, and appendicular skeletal mass index (ASMI) was calculated. The serum levels of silence infor-mation regulator 1 (SIRT1), growth differentiation factor-8 (GDF-8) and insulin-like rowth factor-1 (IGF-1) were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The mRNA expression of AMP-activated protein kinase-α (AMPK-α) in serum was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).Results:Compared with before treatment, grip strength, ASMI, IGF-1, SIRT1 and AMPK-α mRNA in both groups were significantly increased after treatment, while GDF-8 was significantly decreased. The changes of above indexes in the observation group were more significant than those in the control group after treatment [grip strength (kg): 20.00 (15.50, 21.00) vs. 18.20 (14.93, 19.50), ASMI (kg/m 2): 5.80 (5.25, 6.00) vs. 5.30 (5.20, 5.50), IGF-1 (μg/L): 246.00 (229.00, 259.50) vs. 207.00 (187.00, 233.00), SIRT1 (ng/L): 649.2±38.3 vs. 624.6±38.6, AMPK-α mRNA (2 -ΔΔCt): 0.30±0.03 vs. 0.27±0.03, GDF-8 (μg/L): 13.50 (12.00, 17.80) vs. 15.60 (14.08, 19.98), all P < 0.05]. There was no significant difference in walking speed between the two groups before and after treatment [0.56 (0.53, 0.62) m/s and 0.58 (0.55, 0.62) m/s in the control group before and after treatment, 0.58 (0.54, 0.64) m/s and 0.60 (0.56, 0.65) m/s in the observation group before and after treatment, both P > 0.05]. Spearman correlation analysis showed that IGF-1 was positively correlated with SIRT1 ( r = 0.341, P = 0.002), IGF-1 was positively correlated with walking speed ( r = 0.250, P = 0.026), and ASMI was positively correlated with grip strength ( r = 0.367, P = 0.001). Conclusion:On the basis of conventional Western medicine, SLBZS has a remarkable effect on patients with sarcopenia of spleen-stomach weakness, which can provide a new idea of combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine for the treatment of sarcopenia.

Objective:To observe any effect of fast walking on walking speed, 6-minute walking test (6MWT) time, and on serum levels of growth differentiation factor-8 (GDF-8) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in patients with sarcopenia.Methods:A total of 61 sarcopenia patients were randomly divided into an observation group ( n=31) and a control group ( n=30). Both groups were given conventional drug therapy. In addition, the observation group underwent 30-minutes of walking at 100-120 steps/min (about 60% of maximum heart rate) three times a week for 12 weeks. The control group also walked, but at 70-90 steps/min (less than 50% of maximum heart rate). Grip strength, walking speed, 6MWT time, skeletal muscle index (ASMI) and serum GDF-8 and IGF-1 were compared before and after the intervention. Results:There were no significant differences in grip strength or ASMI between observation group and control group (comparing males with males and females with females) before the experiment. Afterward, grip strength and ASMI in the observation group had increased significantly on average. Both were then significantly higher than the control groups′ averages, which had not changed significantly. Average walking speed, 6MWT time and serum IGF-1 levels had improved significantly in both groups, but the observation group′s average improvement was significantly greater. A significant decrease the average serum GDF-8 level was observed in the observation group, but not in the control group.Conclusion:Fast walking can improve the walking of persons with sarcopenia, raise serum IGF-1 levels, and significantly reduce serum GDF-8.