Criteria for classification of protein-energy wasting in dialysis patients: impact on prevalence.

Malnutrition is highly prevalent in dialysis patients and associated with poor outcomes. In 2008, protein-energy wasting (PEW) was coined by the International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (ISRNM), as a single pathological condition in which undernourishment and hypercatabolism converge. In 2014, a new simplified score was described using serum creatinine adjusted for body surface area (sCr/BSA) to replace a reduction of muscle mass over time in the muscle wasting category. We have now compared PEW-ISRNM 2008 and PEW-score 2014 to evaluate the prevalence of PEW and the risk of death in 109 haemodialysis patients. This was a retrospective analysis of cross sectional data with a median prospective follow-up of 20 months. The prevalence of PEW was 41 % for PEW-ISRNM 2008 and 63 % for PEW-score 2014 (P <0·002). Using PEW-score 2014: twenty-nine patients (27 %) had severe malnutrition (PEW-score 2014 0-1) and forty (37 %) with moderate malnutrition (score 2). Additionally, thirty-three (30 %) patients had mild wasting and only seven patients (6 %) presented a normal nutritional status. sCr/BSA correlated with lean total mass (R 0·46. P<0·001). A diagnosis of PEW according to PEW-score 2014, but not according to PEW-ISRNM 2008, was significantly associated with short-term mortality (P=0·0349) in univariate but not in multivariate analysis (P=0·069). In conclusion, the new PEW-score 2014 incorporating sCr/BSA identifies a higher number of dialysis PEW patients than PEW-ISRNM 2008. Whereas PEW-score-2014 provides timelier and therefore more clinically relevant information, its association with early mortality needs to be confirmed in larger studies.

Prevalence of protein-energy wasting and its various types in Iranian hemodialysis patients: a new classification.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of protein-energy wasting (PEW) and its various types in hemodialysis (HD) patients in Tehran, Iran. METHODS: For this cross-sectional study, 291 HD patients were randomly selected. The nutritional status of the patients was determined by subjective global assessment (SGA) and their dietary intakes were assessed using a 4-day dietary recall. In addition, serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was measured. RESULTS: The prevalence of mild-to-moderate and severe PEW based on SGA was 60.5% and 1% in Tehran HD patients, respectively. The prevalence of various types of PEW in HD patients was 20.5% type I (inadequate energy or protein intake without inflammation), 65.5% type IIa (inadequate energy or protein intake with inflammation), and 14% type IIb (adequate energy and protein intake with inflammation). Of the total HD patients with no PEW based on SGA, about 3.5% had type 0 normal nutritional status (adequate energy and protein intake without inflammation), 34% had type I normal nutritional status (inadequate energy or protein intake without inflammation), 55.5% had type IIa normal nutritional status (inadequate energy or protein intake with inflammation), and 7% had type IIb normal nutritional status (adequate energy and protein intake with inflammation). CONCLUSION: PEW in Tehran HD patients is considerably prevalent and PEW type IIa is the most common type. In addition, HD patients with no PEW based on SGA should also be paid attention because they may be in the early stages of inadequate intake of energy and/or protein and inflammation.

A composite score of protein-energy nutritional status predicts mortality in haemodialysis patients no better than its individual components.

BACKGROUND: Protein-energy wasting is tightly associated with mortality in haemodialysis patients. An expert panel of the International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (ISRNM) has published a consensus on the parameters that define protein-energy nutritional status and posed the question, 'which scoring system most effectively predicts outcome?' The aim of our study was therefore to develop a composite score of protein-energy nutritional status (cPENS) and to assess its prediction of all-cause mortality. METHODS: We used the data of 560 haemodialysis patients participating in the CONvective TRAnsport STudy (CONTRAST). All participants were followed for occurrence of death. Internationally recommended nutritional targets were used as components of the cPENS, including the subjective global assessment (target score ≥ 6), albumin (≥ 4.0 g/dL), normalized protein nitrogen appearance (≥ 0.8 g/kg/day), cholesterol (≥ 100 mg/dL), creatinine (≥ 10 mg/dL) and BMI (> 23 kg/m(2)). A Cox regression model was used to analyse the relation between different cPENS variants and mortality. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 1.4 years (max 4.2). One hundred and five patients (19%) died. A cPENS variant based on albumin, BMI, creatinine and the nPNA yielded the strongest relation with mortality (hazard ratio 0.63, 95% confidence interval 0.54-0.74, P < 0.001), after adjustments for confounders. Some of the individual parameters of the cPENS, notably albumin and creatinine, were related to mortality with similar strength and magnitude. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, albumin reflects mortality risk similarly to multiple nutritional parameters combined. This questions the clinical value of the proposed diagnostic criteria for protein-energy wasting.

Comparison of the new World Health Organization growth standards and the National Center for Health Statistics growth reference regarding mortality of malnourished children treated in a 2006 nutrition program in Niger.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) international growth reference with the new World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards for identification of the malnourished (wasted) children most at risk of death. DESIGN: Retrospective data analysis. SETTING: A Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) nutrition program in Maradi, Niger, in 2006 that treated moderately and severely malnourished children. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 53 661 wasted children aged 6 months to 5 years (272 of whom died) in the program were included. INTERVENTIONS: EpiNut (Epi Info 6.0; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia) software was used to calculate the percentage of the median for the NCHS reference group, and the WHO (igrowup macro; Geneva, Switzerland) software was used to calculate z scores for the WHO standards group of the 53 661 wasted children. OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome measures are the difference in classification of children as either moderate or severely malnourished according to the NCHS growth reference and the new WHO growth standards, specifically focusing on children who died during the program. RESULTS: Of the children classified as moderately wasted using the NCHS reference, 37% would have been classified as severely wasted according to the new WHO growth standards. These children were almost 3 times more likely to die than those classified as moderately wasted by both references, and deaths in this group constituted 47% of all deaths in the program. CONCLUSIONS: The new WHO growth standards identifies more children as severely wasted compared with the NCHS growth reference, including children at high mortality risk who would potentially otherwise be excluded from some therapeutic feeding programs.

Prevalence of malnutrition in human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome orphans in the Nyanza province of Kenya: a comparison of conventional indexes with a composite index of anthropometric failure.

The prevalence of undernutrition in children is commonly reported using a conventional index, which identifies three conventional categories: stunting, underweight, and wasting. Recently, a composite index of anthropometric failure was developed to categorize undernutrition into seven mutually exclusive categories, including single failures (stunting, underweight, or wasting) and multiple failures (stunting and underweight, stunting and wasting, underweight and wasting, and stunting and underweight and wasting). This cross-sectional study used baseline data gathered during a feeding program targeting orphans and vulnerable children impacted by human immunodeficiency virus and/or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in Kenya to compare the conventional index with the composite index of anthropometric failure. Children younger than 5 years of age who participated in the feeding trial were included in the analysis (n=170). The conventional index found that the prevalence of undernutrition included 31.2% stunted, 14.1% underweight, and 5.9% wasted children, whereas the composite index of anthropometric failure estimated a more severe overall prevalence rate (38.2%); thus, the conventional index did not uncover the complexity of malnutrition experienced. Of the 53 children classified as stunted by the conventional index, the composite index of anthropometric failure identified 36 (67.9%) as stunted and 17 (32.1%) as stunted and underweight. Thus, the composite index of anthropometric failure was able to distinguish children with multiple anthropometric failures. In total, multiple anthropometric failures were found in 22 of the 65 children with anthropometric failure. These data suggest that the complexity and prevalence of undernutrition may be underestimated using the conventional index because it does not identify children experiencing multiple anthropometric failures. The ability of the composite index of anthropometric failure to identify children with multiple anthropometric failures may have profound implications for prioritizing, designing, and targeting nutritional interventions.

A proposed nomenclature and diagnostic criteria for protein-energy wasting in acute and chronic kidney disease.

The recent research findings concerning syndromes of muscle wasting, malnutrition, and inflammation in individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or acute kidney injury (AKI) have led to a need for new terminology. To address this need, the International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (ISRNM) convened an expert panel to review and develop standard terminologies and definitions related to wasting, cachexia, malnutrition, and inflammation in CKD and AKI. The ISRNM expert panel recommends the term 'protein-energy wasting' for loss of body protein mass and fuel reserves. 'Kidney disease wasting' refers to the occurrence of protein-energy wasting in CKD or AKI regardless of the cause. Cachexia is a severe form of protein-energy wasting that occurs infrequently in kidney disease. Protein-energy wasting is diagnosed if three characteristics are present (low serum levels of albumin, transthyretin, or cholesterol), reduced body mass (low or reduced body or fat mass or weight loss with reduced intake of protein and energy), and reduced muscle mass (muscle wasting or sarcopenia, reduced mid-arm muscle circumference). The kidney disease wasting is divided into two main categories of CKD- and AKI-associated protein-energy wasting. Measures of chronic inflammation or other developing tests can be useful clues for the existence of protein-energy wasting but do not define protein-energy wasting. Clinical staging and potential treatment strategies for protein-energy wasting are to be developed in the future.