Poster Presentation Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting 2026

Frailty, temporalis muscle thickness and 5-year clinical outcomes in a memory clinic cohort (#249)

Gwen Tran 1 , Andrew Huynh 1 2 , Sophie Avramoudas 2 3 , Scott Wrigley 1 , Nan Jordan 2 , Paul Yates 1 2
  1. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
  2. Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
  3. Department of Psychiatry, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia

Aims

Sarcopenia and frailty are associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation, falls and mortality. Current guideline-recommended tools to diagnose sarcopenia are not routinely performed in a cognitive workup. Temporalis muscle thickness (TMT), assessed on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which are commonly performed in a cognitive workup, has been suggested as a surrogate marker for sarcopenia. We aimed to assess if TMT, measured using coronal T1-weighted images, was associated with clinical outcomes of hospitalisation, falls and mortality.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study of patients who attended a memory clinic at Austin health, a tertiary referral hospital in Mel­bourne, Australia in 2014. Patients with brain MRIs with adequate coronal T1-weighted brain MRI to be assessed were included. Frailty was assessed using a 54-item frailty index, with frail>0.25. Hospital electronic medical records were reviewed for clinical outcomes of hospitalisation, falls and morality. Cox proportional hazards models examined the relationship between sarcopenia, frailty and clinical outcomes over 5-years, adjusting for age.

Results

114 patients (Median age 75.6 years old (Interquartile range 66.3 – 83.0), 55% female, 34% frail, median TMT 5.3 millimetres (mm) (IQR 4.4 – 5.3). Adjusting for age, TMT was not associated with hospitalisation, falls and mortality. Frailty was associated with mortality (HR 4.34 95%CI 1.01 – 18.71, p=0.049), but not hospitalisation and falls.

Conclusions

TMT, measured by coronal T1-weighted images, was not associated with 5-year risk of hospitalisation, falls or mortality. Frailty was associated with mortality, but not hospitalisation and falls.