Magnetic Resonance Imaging Clinics of North America · Jun 12, 2026
State of the Art Imaging Assessment of Sarcopenia
By Alvarez de Sierra Garcia B, Restrepo-Velez Z, Rodriguez-Laval V et al.
Sarcopenia is an age-related skeletal muscle disorder characterized by progressive loss of muscle strength, mass, and structural integrity. MRI plays a central role in evaluating muscle volume, fatty infiltration, inflammation, fibrosis, and architectural changes using advanced techniques including Dixon imaging, PDFF quantification, T2 mapping, diffusion imaging, IVIM, and ultrashort-echo-time sequences. Radiomic analysis further improves characterization of muscle degeneration and osteosarcopenia by extracting quantitative imaging biomarkers. These MRI-derived metrics support the diagnosis, phenotyping, risk stratification, and longitudinal monitoring of sarcopenia.