Poor performance of strength, assistance with walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs and falls for sarcopenia screening in cirrhosis: A pilot study

doi:10.4254/wjh.v18.i4.113458

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Apr 27, 2026 (publication date) through Apr 22, 2026

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World Journal of Hepatology

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1948-5182

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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

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Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Hepatol. Apr 27, 2026; 18(4): 113458
Published online Apr 27, 2026. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v18.i4.113458

Poor performance of strength, assistance with walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs and falls for sarcopenia screening in cirrhosis: A pilot study

Bruna Goularth Lacerda, Luis F Ferreira, Lilian Kethelyn Teixeira Pinheiro, Claudio A Marroni, Sabrina Alves Fernandes

Bruna Goularth Lacerda, Lilian Kethelyn Teixeira Pinheiro, Claudio A Marroni, Sabrina Alves Fernandes, Postgraduate Program in Hepatology, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90050-170, Brazil

Luis F Ferreira, Department of Hepatology, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90050-170, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Author contributions: Lacerda BG and Ferreira LF contributed to conceptualization, data curation, investigations, methodology, project administration, resources, visualization, and writing-original draft preparation; Pinheiro LKT, Fernandes SA, and Marroni CA contributed to conceptualization, data curation, project administration, resources, visualization, and writing-original draft preparation.

Supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-Brasil, CAPES/CNPq N° 01.

Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, No. 6.637.252.

Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.

Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest for any of the researchers.

STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement- checklist of items.

Data sharing statement: No additional data is available for sharing.

Corresponding author: Sabrina Alves Fernandes, PhD, Professor, Researcher, Postgraduate Program in Hepatology, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Sarmento Leite 245, Porto Alegre 90050-170, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. sabrinaafernandes@gmail.com

Received: August 26, 2025
Revised: December 17, 2025
Accepted: February 10, 2026
Published online: April 27, 2026
Processing time: 238 Days and 18.2 Hours

Core Tip

Core Tip: Sarcopenia is common in cirrhosis and negatively affects prognosis. Early detection is essential for effective management. We evaluated the strength, assistance with walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs and falls (SARC-F) questionnaire as a screening tool in 45 cirrhotic patients. We compared its performance with objective functional tests, including handgrip strength and the five times sit-to-stand test. Our main finding is that SARC-F significantly underperformed, missing all true positive cases and showing low sensitivity. In contrast, functional tests detected more patients at risk and proved more reliable. This indicates that SARC-F should not be used alone in cirrhotic patients. Functional assessments provide better guidance and should be integrated into clinical screening protocols.