Abstract:Objective To investigate the levels of serum vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF） and bone morphogenetic protein-2（BMP-2）in elderly patients with sarcopenia and their diagnostic values. Methods A total of 290 elderly individuals who underwent physical examinations at Third People's Hospital of Hubei Province from February 2022 to February 2024 were included as the study subjects. Among them，158 elderly individuals diagnosed with sarcopenia were included in the case group，while 132 elderly individuals without sarcopenia were included in the control group. According to the relevant consensus，the patients in the case group were divided into different stages：pre-sarcopenia group（42 cases），sarcopenia group（64 cases）and severe sarcopenia group（52 cases）. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was applied to detect serum VEGF and BMP-2 levels，and the correlations of them with clinical indicators were analyzed by Pearson method. Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the influencing factors of senile sarcopenia，and the diagnostic value of VEGF，BMP-2 and their combination in senile sarcopenia were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curve. Results Compared with the control group，the serum VEGF level in the case group was lower［（189.49±31.59）pg/mL vs（220.17±26.78）pg/mL，t=8.820，P<0.01］，and the BMP-2 level was higher［（3.31±0.68）pg/mL vs（2.68±0.55）pg/mL，t=8.559，P<0.01］. In the case group，according to the order of pre-sarcopenia，sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia，the serum VEGF level decreased and BMP-2 level increased in turn（P<0.05）. The appendicular skeletal muscle mass（ASM），skeletal muscle mass（SM），relative appendicular skeletal muscle index（RASM），grip strength，and gait speed of the case group were lower than those of the control group（P<0.05）. The VEGF level was positively correlated with ASM，SM，RASM，grip strength，and gait speed（P<0.05），however，the BMP - 2 level was negatively correlated with these five indexes（P<0.05）. Multivariate analysis showed that high BMP-2 was an independent risk factor for senile sarcopenia，while high RASM and VEGF were protective factors for senile sarcopenia（P<0.05）. The area under the curve（AUC）of VEGF combined with BMP-2 in diagnosing senile sarcopenia was 0.882，which was better than the AUC of 0.808 for VEGF alone diagnosis and the AUC of 0.793 for BMP-2 alone diagnosis（Z=3.436，Z=3.930，P<0.05）. Conclusion Serum VEGF levels decrease and BMP-2 levels increase in senile sarcopenia. The two are closely related to the progression of the disease. Their combined diagnostic efficacy is excellent，and they are expected to become clinical predictive markers for senile sarcopenia.