ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Renal Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1626241
This article is part of the Research TopicModifiable Risk Factors for Chronic Kidney Disease ProgressionView all 11 articles
Association between triglyceride-glucose index and sarcopenia in patients with chronic kidney disease
Provisionally accepted
- 1Changzhou Third People's Hospital, Changzhou, China
- 2Changzhou Clinical College, Xuzhou Medical University, Changzhou, China
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Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between the triglyceride-glucose index (TyG) and sarcopenia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aim was to gain new insights into preventing and treating sarcopenia in CKD patients. Methods: The study utilized data from two cohorts, including the NHANES 2011-2018 cohort in the United States and the 2018-2023 cohort in China. After applying uniform inclusion and exclusion criteria, 827 patients with CKD in the US cohort and 1,038 patients with CKD in the Chinese cohort were ultimately included in the study. The relationship between the TyG index and sarcopenia was analyzed using logistic regression modeling and multivariate adjustment. The dose-response relationship was also explored using restricted cubic spline (RCS) modeling. Subgroup analyses were also conducted to investigate the potential heterogeneity among different characteristic subgroups. Results: The TyG index was found to be significantly and positively associated with sarcopenia in patients with chronic kidney disease in both the United States and Chinese cohorts. In the US cohort, the risk of sarcopenia was increased 4.01-fold in the highest TyG quartile group compared with the lowest quartile group (P=0.002). In the Chinese cohort, the corresponding risk was increased 3.25-fold (P<0.001). Furthermore, the RCS analysis corroborated the nonlinear positive association. Subgroup analyses revealed that the correlation between TyG and sarcopenia was more pronounced in patients without diabetes and without metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: The TyG index may serve as a potential biomarker for assessing sarcopenia in CKD patients, thereby supporting the critical role of insulin resistance in developing sarcopenia. Further research is required to elucidate the precise mechanisms by which TyG is associated with sarcopenia and to develop tailored intervention strategies for different patient groups.
Keywords: Chronic Kidney Disease, Sarcopenia, Triglyceride-glucose index, Insulin Resistance, Cross-sectional study
Received: 10 May 2025; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenjian Li, Changzhou Clinical College, Xuzhou Medical University, Changzhou, China
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