Use of Biomarkers.

Expanding the concept of frailty to the clinical settings has raised the concern about the accuracy of the current definitions for identifying frail individuals (not populations). The usual tools to assess frailty show, among other characteristics, a low sensitivity and a low Positive Predictive Value. One approach to overcome this challenge is using biological biomarkers to improve those characteristics, making feasible and accurate the assessment of frailty in clinical settings. Many biomarkers of frailty have been identified but few of them have been assessed as clinical markers with controversial results. Taking into account that frailty is caused by the failure in different systems, it is worthy to check if the combination of several of these biomarkers could be of help. In this effort, the EU-funded project FRAILOMIC is trying to assess the ability of different sets of biomarkers for improving the accuracy of classical definitions in determining the risk, the diagnosis and the prognosis of frailty.