Rationale: Sarcopenia is associated with disability and death. The optimal definition and clinical relevance of sarcopenia in lung transplantation remain unknown.

Objectives: To assess the construct and predictive validity of sarcopenia definitions in lung transplant candidates.

Methods: In a multicenter prospective cohort of 424 lung transplant candidates, we evaluated limited (muscle mass only) and expanded (muscle mass and quality) sarcopenia definitions from the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2 (EWGSOP2), the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), and a cohort-specific distribution-based lowest quartile definition. We assessed construct validity using associations with conceptually related factors. We evaluated the relationship between sarcopenia and frailty using generalized additive models. We also evaluated associations between sarcopenia definitions and key pretransplant outcomes, including disability (quantified by the Lung Transplant Valued Life Activities scale [range, 0–3; higher scores = worse disability; minimally important difference, 0.3]) and waitlist delisting/death, by multivariate linear and Cox regression, respectively.

Results: Sarcopenia prevalence ranged from 6% to13% by definition used. The limited EWGSOP2 definition demonstrated the highest construct validity, followed by the expanded EWGSOP2 definition and both limited and expanded FNIH and lowest quartile definitions. Sarcopenia exhibited a linear association with the risk of frailty. The EWGSOP2 and expanded lowest quartile definitions were associated with disability, ranging from 0.20 to 0.25 higher Lung Transplant Valued Life Activities scores. Sarcopenia was associated with increased risk of waitlist delisting or death by the limited and expanded lowest quartile definitions (hazard ratio [HR], 3.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4–9.9 and HR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.1–11.0, respectively) and the EWGSOP2 limited definition (HR, 2.8; 95% CI, 0.9–8.6) but not with the three other candidate definitions.

Conclusions: The prevalence and validity of sarcopenia vary by definition; the EWGSOP2 limited definition exhibited the broadest validity in lung transplant candidates. The linear relationship between low muscle mass and frailty highlights sarcopenia’s contribution to frailty and also questions the clinical utility of a sarcopenia cut-point in advanced lung disease. The associations between sarcopenia and important pretransplant outcomes support further investigation into using body composition for candidate risk stratification.