Internal medicine

Pathology

Sarcopenia

Bioelectrical impedance analysis

Anthropometry

Lean body mass

Body weight

Intensive care medicine

Physical therapy

Skeletal muscle

Body mass index

Malnutrition

Medicine

Clinical Nutrition

The Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) provides consensus criteria for the diagnosis of malnutrition that can be widely applied. The GLIM approach is based on the assessment of three phenotypic (weight loss, low body mass index, and low skeletal muscle mass) and two etiologic (low food intake and presence of disease with systemic inflammation) criteria, with diagnosis confirmed by any combination of one phenotypic and one etiologic criterion fulfilled. Assessment of muscle mass is less commonly performed than other phenotypic malnutrition criteria, and its interpretation may be less straightforward, particularly in settings that lack access to skilled clinical nutrition practitioners and/or to body composition methodologies.

Guidance for assessment of the muscle mass phenotypic criterion for the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) diagnosis of malnutrition