Comparison of the Effectiveness of Nutritional Risk Score-2002 and Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritizing Tool Nutrition Screening Tools in Liver Cirrhosis

TL;DR

This study compares two nutrition screening tools for liver cirrhosis patients to determine which is better at identifying malnutrition.

Contribution

The study provides a direct comparison of the effectiveness of NRS-2002 and RFH-NPT in detecting malnutrition in liver cirrhosis.

Findings

RFH-NPT showed higher sensitivity (91.5%) and moderate specificity (63.3%) in detecting nutritional risk.

RFH-NPT was more strongly correlated with biochemical parameters than NRS-2002.

Albumin levels were more effective than other biochemical markers in predicting nutritional risk.

Abstract

Malnutrition is a serious problem in patients with liver cirrhosis; therefore, it is recommended that nutritional screening should be performed regularly with appropriate nutritional screening tools (NSTs). This study aimed to compare the efficacy of the Nutritional Risk Score-2002 (NRS-2002) and Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritizing Tool (RFH-NPT) NSTs in detecting malnutrition in liver cirrhosis patients.

This study was conducted with cirrhotic patients (n = 149). The NRS-2002 and RFH-NPT scales were used to assess the nutritional status of patients, and anthropometric measurements were taken. Biochemical findings of patients were recorded. The Chronic Liver Disease Life Quality Scale 2.0 (CLDLQS 2.0) was used to determine the quality of life.

According to both NSTs, patients with nutritional risk had lower body weight, body mass index, albumin levels, higher C-reactive protein levels, and quality of life scores than patients without nutritional risk (P < .05). The sensitivity and specificity of the RFH-NPT were 91.5% and 63.3%, respectively. Albumin was more effective in predicting nutritional risk than other biochemical parameters. The RFH-NPT was found to be more correlated with biochemical parameters than NRS-2002.

TheRFH-NPT is highly effective in detecting malnutrition and correlates with biochemical parameters in cirrhotic patients.

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