Sarcopenia (muscle weakness) is common among older adults, resulting in serious consequences such as disability, increased mortality, and negative effects on co-morbid conditions. It is currently unrecognized as a disease state within the healthcare industry because there is a lack of uniform criteria for its diagnosis and severity.

This project is designed to create consensus guidelines for the diagnosis of sarcopenia under the aegis of a neutral convener, The Biomarkers Consortium.

The goal is to develop the consensus guidelines for the diagnosis of sarcopenia by answering two main questions:

1. What is a clinically important degree of muscle weakness in older adults?
2. Among older persons who are weak, what proportion demonstrate low muscle mass as a potentially treatable contributing cause?

The hope is that the consensus definition would serve the purposes of all interested stakeholders from academia, government, industry, as well as the nonprofit sector, represented in this case by patient advocacy organizations.

This project is designed to take advantage of substantial existing data from observational and clinical studies which will be analyzed to provide the basis for a consensus definition of sarcopenia. The project has two major phases:

Phase I:
The Biomarkers Consortium Project Team, consisting of 10 experts on sarcopenia representing NIA, FDA, Pharma and the research community, and led by Dr. Stephanie Studenski from the University of Pittsburgh, created a Request for Proposals and selected six principal investigators, after a careful peer-review process, to be awarded research grants of $40,000 each for the analysis of existing data from observational population-based studies and clinical trials. The duration of each grant is 12 months.

Phase II:
Convene a ”consensus” conference in late 2010 (with ~100 participants, by invitation only) to review the analysis findings and create recommendations for the development of a consensus definition of sarcopenia and of the clinical criteria for its measurement acceptable to and useful for the purposes of all stakeholders. Prepare a summary manuscript of the recommendations and the analysis of the results to be published in a journal supplement.