Abstract: Objective The impact of sarcopenia in patients with liver cirrhosis on the clinical prognosis and other comorbidities is not fully understood. The Objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence and influencing factors of sarcopenia in patients with cirrhosis, and its impact on the occurrence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). Methods All inpatients with cirrhosis were included in our hospital between March 2019 and February 2021, and all patients underwent CT scan for muscle evaluation at L3 lumbar vertebra level by SliceOmatic V5.0 software. The multivariate Logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze the impacting factors for sarcopenia. Results A total of 311 patients with cirrhosis were included in this study, with the sarcopenia incidence of 11.6% (36/311); the age, male proportion and the incidence of SBP in patients with sarcopenia were(57.8±13.6)yr, 88.9% and 22.2%, significantly different compared to [(50.0±11.1)yr, 58.2% and 9.3%, respectively, P<0.05] in those without sarcopenia; the body mass index (BMI), white blood cell (WBC) counts, hemoglobulin (Hb), albumin and high-density lipoprotein levels in patients with sarcopenia 19.6(2.4)kg/m², 4.5(3.4)×10⁹/L, 100.5(36.5)g/L, 31.8±6.6 g/L and 0.9(0.4)mmol/L, significantly different compared to [ 22.5(4.2)kg/m², 3.5(2.6)×10⁹/L, 129.0(40.3)g/L, 36.3±6.6g/L and 1.0(0.4)mmol/L, respectively, P<0.05] in patients without sarcopenia; the multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the age, gender, WBC, Hb, albumin and BMI were all the independent risk factors for the existence of carcopenia (all P＜0.05). Conclusion The patients with liver cirrhosis could have sarcopenia, which might be a precipitating factor for the occurrence of SBP.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Sarcopenia, Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, Multivariate Logistic regression analysis, Risk factors