RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the nutritional status of patients with chronic liver disease by evaluating the strength of grip of non-dominant hand (SGNDH), correlating it with other methods and analyzing their contribution to this assessment. METHODS: This study was conducted with patients having chronic chronic disease at the outpatient hepatology service of the Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira--IMIP, Recife-PE, from February to October 2010. Clinical and demographic variables were collected. The evaluation was performed according to anthropometric, subjective and functional parameters. RESULTS: There were evaluated 49 individuals and 65.3
of them were men. The mean age was 51.3 years and individuals over 60 year predominated. The patients presented non-alcoholic liver disease in 61.2
of cases, MELD < or = 10 in 67.3
, some gastroenteropathy in 67.4
, jaundice in 66.7
and ascites in 63
. The global average SGNDH was higher among men with higher prevalence of malnutrition by arm muscle area (AMA), followed by arm muscle circumference (AMC) and SGNDH, and lower prevalence by body mass index (BMI) and adapted subjective global assessment (SGA). There were not statistically significant differences between the prevalence of malnutrition by SGNDH and arm circumference (AC), triceps skinfold (TS), AMC, AMA and Mendenhall score. The diagnosis of malnutrition by SGND was higher among men and 100
among elderly (P < 0.05). There was strong correlation between SGNDH and AMC, regular between SGNDU and height, and weak between SGDNH and AC (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It is noted that the SGNDH showed similar contribution than AMA and AMC and higher than BMI and adapted SGA. The strong correlation between SGNDH and AMC indicates a major relationship with muscle reserves. Thus, more studies are needed to clarify the application of SGNDH in this nutritional assessment. We point out that an association of different methods is necessary.