Handgrip strength is associated with 12-month survival in male patients suffering with advanced chronic liver disease.

BACKGROUND: Advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD) patients are usually malnourished, and both conditions in combination increase the likelihood of unfavourable clinical outcomes. Handgrip strength (HGS) has been suggested as a relevant parameter for nutritional assessment and predictor of adverse clinical outcomes in ACLD. However, the HGS cut-off values for ACLD patients have not yet been reliably established. The aims of this study were to preliminarily identify HGS reference values in a sample population of ACLD male patients and to assess their association with survival over a 12-month follow-up period. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study with preliminary analysis of outpatients and inpatients. A total of 185 male patients with a medical diagnosis of ACLD met the inclusion criteria and were invited to participate in the study. The physiological variation in muscle strength related to the age of the individuals included in the study was considered to obtain cut-off values. RESULTS: After categorising HGS by age group (adults: 18-60 years; elderly: ≥60 years), the reference values obtained were 32.5 kg for the adults and 16.5 kg for the elderly. During the 12-month follow-up, 20.5% of the patients died, and 76.3% of those had been identified with reduced HGS. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with adequate HGS showed significantly higher 12-month survival than those with reduced HGS within the same period. Our findings show that HGS is an important predictive parameter for clinical and nutritional follow-up in ACLD male patients.

Specific nutrition evaluation of patients with advanced chronic liver disease: Development and validation.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is frequently identified in patients with advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD), and its early identification is necessary for effective nutrition treatment. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a tool for specific nutrition evaluation of patients with ACLD (SNE-ACLD). METHODS: SNE-ACLD was developed by consensus among experts using Delphi technique. The initial proposal for the SNE-ACLD had six domains (history of weight loss, changes in food intake, gastrointestinal symptoms, changes in functional capacity, presence of complications of liver disease, and a nutrition-focused physical examination) and 11 items. Fifteen experts participated in content validation. In a cross-sectional study design, the new tool was applied to 129 inpatients and outpatients from a gastrohepatology unit. Nutrition status was evaluated with SNE-ACLD and subjective global assessment by one researcher. Content validation and semantic analysis were obtained by content validity index. To verify accuracy of SNE-ACLD, the sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated. RESULTS: After five evaluative sequences conducted by experts, experts excluded the domain for history of weight loss and its respective item. The final version of SNE-ACLD consists of five domains and 10 items. The new instrument showed good accuracy in identifying any level of malnutrition (AUC = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.76-0.91) and severe malnutrition (AUC = 0.90; 95% CI, 0.79-1.00). CONCLUSION: SNE-ACLD can be used in nutrition assessment of patients with liver disease. Future works should investigate its agreement with other methods and its predictive value.