Katerina Rau is 83. Up until now she has lived on her own. She carries out her household chores herself.

But an increasing muscular weakness threatens her independence.

For the last few years she has noticed a weakness in her hands, which makes it difficult to do the daily household work.

An increasing loss of strength in the legs ends up in difficulties in getting up from the chair and climbing stairs.

Her mobility is threatened. The cause for Katharina Raum's loss of muscle strength is sarcopenia, or age-related muscle weakness.

At the University of Erlangen Nuremberg, research into the causes of sarcopenia is a main topic.

When we see and treat elderly and especially old, oldest old people, they often are frail.

But what we usually see is that these people lose muscle mass. This is called sarcopenia.

Why is this important? If elderly persons lose fat-free mass or muscle, this directly interferes with their functionality.

Functionality, on the other hand, guarantees in elderly persons that they can be independent.

And if they are independent, they usually have also a good quality of life.

One consequence of sarcopenia is a change in gait.

Special sensors on the shoes of the affected patients exactly record the gait pattern.

This form of mobile gait analysis can be used in daily life.

With the help of these sensors, those people who are at risk of falls can be identified.

The diagnosis of sarcopenia is focused on the measurement of muscle mass and muscle strength.

For the diagnosis of sarcopenia, you have to determine the muscle mass in the legs and in the arms.

For the measurement of the muscle mass, a device is used like it is used for the bone mineral density.

Furthermore, you have to measure the muscle strength in the upper and lower extremities.

Therefore, dynamometers are usually used.

If the values are below a certain cut-off, the diagnosis of sarcopenia is made.

With a special X-ray method, muscle mass in the arms and legs of the affected patients can be measured exactly.

The measurement is quick and the exposure dose is low.

The device measures bone mass and fat mass.

From these measurements, the muscle mass can be estimated.

Patients like Katharina Raum have too less muscle mass.

She has to be treated immediately.

On suspicion of sarcopenia, this test can make it clear.

Without using her hands, to rise from the chair five times as fast as possible.

With this test, the investigator gets a good impression of the muscle strength without the help of many devices.

Healthy people are able to do this in 11 seconds.

Katharina Raum needs more than twice the time.

For the diagnosis of sarcopenia, the hand grip strength has to be determined.

For that purpose, a hand dynamometer for measurement of hand grip strength is used.

On command, Katharina Raum has to close her hand as strong as possible.

Today 10 kg were measured, this is too less.

Very important, focus muscle strength training.

Katharina Raum lost muscle strength, especially in the arms and legs.

With the help of a leg press, the strength in the lower extremities can be measured.

Simultaneously, muscle strength can be trained to avoid further loss of mass.

Future research has to focus on special therapies for sarcopenia to counteract this frequent disease in geriatric people with grave consequences.