Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of the body cell mass index (BCMI) in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients with sarcopenia.

Methods A total of 92 MHD patients were selected as the research subjects. They were divided into sarcopenia group (n=25) and non-sarcopenia group (n=67) based on whether they had sarcopenia. The baseline data of the two groups were compared, and the influencing factors of sarcopenia in MHD patients were analyzed. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic value of BCMI for sarcopenia.

Results The skeletal muscle mass index (SMI), BCMI, body mass index (BMI), arm muscle circumference (AMC), waist circumference (WC), body cell mass (BCM), phase angle (PhA), extracellular water (ECW), total body water (TBW), total albumin, prealbumin, albumin, creatinine and serum phosphorus in the sarcopenia group were significantly lower, and age in the sarcopenia group was significantly higher than that in the non-sarcopenia group (P < 0.05). Univariate Logistic regression analysis showed that BCMI, albumin, age, BMI, SMI, ECW, TBW, PhA, AMC, WC, creatinine and serum phosphorus were all influencing factors of sarcopenia (P < 0.05); multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that BCMI was an independent influencing factor of sarcopenia (P < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of ROC curve for BCMI in diagnosing sarcopenia was 0.818.

Conclusion BCMI can serve as a sensitive indicator for diagnosing sarcopenia in MHD patients and can be used to identify high-risk populations of MHD patients with sarcopenia.