Urinary titin as a biomarker of sarcopenia in diabetes: a propensity score matching analysis

Measuring urinary titin levels is expected to be useful in screening for muscle damage or injury in various diseases. We evaluated whether urinary titin levels were elevated in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and how urinary titin levels were associated with the diagnosis of sarcopenia in T2DM.

We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 114 controls and 515 patients with T2DM. Multivariate-adjusted models were used to determine the odds ratios (OR) of urinary titin cutoff values for diagnosing sarcopenia.

Urinary titin levels were higher in the T2DM group than in the non-diabetes group after propensity score matching (median [IQR] 3.2 [2.3, 4.6] vs. 4.4 [2.7, 6.9] pmol/mg·creatinine). T2DM was associated with high titin levels after correction for comorbidities (odds ratio 2.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29–4.70, P = 0.006) but not after correction for sarcopenia-associated factors. Urinary titin levels above the cutoff value showed an odd ratio of 6.61 (age- and body mass index-adjusted, 1.26–34.6, P = 0.021) for the diagnosis of sarcopenia in men with T2DM aged ≥ 75 years.

Results indicated that T2DM was associated with a high-titin state and that the urinary titin cutoff value could be useful for identifying candidates at high risk for sarcopenia, such as elderly men.