Background and Aims: Malnutrition might affect survival and severity of complications in cirrhotic patients. However, adequate evaluation of the nutritional status is a difficult task since the common assessment tools are either inappropriate or too complicated. A simpler method could evaluate the patient’s risk for malnutrition instead of the nutritional status itself. This study evaluated the prediction of clinical deterioration and transplant-free survival in patients with chronic liver disease by two nutritional risk scores. Methods: In 84 cirrhotic patients, Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS), Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritizing Tool (RFH-NPT), and the chronic liver disease questionnaire have been assessed. These patients were evaluated at a second time point after a median observation time of 500 days. Another cohort of 64 patients was collected to validate the findings. Results: Of the included patients, 67.7 % were male with a median age of 57 years and a median Child score of 9. RFH-NPT classified 50.7 % of the patients as high-risk patients, and NRS assessed 44.6 % of the patients as moderate- to high-risk patients. RFH-NPT correlated with clinical deterioration, severity of disease (Child score, MELD score), and clinical complications such as ascites, hepatorenal syndrome, and episodes of hepatic encephalopathy. RFH-NPT was an independent predictor of clinical deterioration and transplant-free survival. Furthermore, improvement in RFH-NPT within 500 days was associated with improved survival. Conclusion: Assessing the patients’ risk for malnutrition by RFH-NPT may be a useful predictor of disease progression and outcome for patients with chronic liver disease.
CITATION STYLE
Borhofen, S. M., Gerner, C., Lehmann, J., Fimmers, R., Görtzen, J., Hey, B., … Trebicka, J. (2016). The Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritizing Tool Is an Independent Predictor of Deterioration of Liver Function and Survival in Cirrhosis. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 61(6), 1735–1743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-015-4015-z
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