Acute hospitalization accelerates muscle loss in older adults through inflammation, immobility, inadequate nutritional intake, and anabolic resistance. Respiratory muscles may also be affected, reducing frail patients’ ability to tolerate infection, deconditioning, or subsequent respiratory insult. Respiratory sarcopenia, the coexistence of respiratory muscle weakness and reduced respiratory muscle mass, has emerged as a clinically relevant but insufficiently standardized condition [1,2].
