MATERIAL AND METHODS
Design and study population
A retrospective observational study was performed including patients diagnosed with hepatoblastoma and treated in our center between 2006 and 2021. Patients who met any of the following criteria were excluded:
The selected patients were divided according to the presence or absence of sarcopenia at diagnosis into two groups: those with sarcopenia (SP group) and those without sarcopenia (NSP group).
As the retrospective study described is within the bounds of regular clinical practice and written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian, ethical review and approval was not required in accordance with the local legislation and national guidelines.
Study variables:
All variables of interest for this study were obtained and recorded anonymously from the patient’s clinical reports, including:
Statistical analysis:
The variables studied in this work were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistic 22.0 statistical package. For descriptive analysis, quantitative variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD) or median and interquartile range (IQR), while qualitative variables were expressed as percentages.
To compare qualitative variables, the Chi-square test or Fisher’s Exact Test was used as appropriate. To compare quantitative variables, the Student’s t-test (for normal variables) or the Mann-Whitney U test (variables that did not follow a normal distribution) were used. The Odds ratio (OR) was calculated using the Baptista-Pike method. The study of correlation between quantitative variables was performed using Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation test as appropriate, expressing the strength and direction of the association with the r statistic (p value). Survival curves were obtained by the Kapplan-Meyer method, using the Log-rank test for comparisons.
All differences with a p-value <0.05 were considered statistically significant. All confidence intervals (CI) were calculated at 95%.