Introduction: Malnutrition presents in more than half of cirrhotic patients. It is varied from 20% in compensated liver disease to 80% in decompensated liver disease. This study aimed at assessing the frequency of malnutrition and relation between the malnutrition and degree of liver severity.
Patients and Methods:This study carried out in Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology Department at El-Rajhy Hospital in Assiut University, Egypt from December 2015 to December 2016 on 101 patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis based on their medical profile, the liver disease severity was determined by Child Pugh, MELD and MELD Na scores then nutritional status of the patients was assessed by different methods including anthropometric diameters (BMI, TSFT, MAC, MAMC), body composition analysis, SGA, CHI, PNI and CONUT and finally we assessed the relation between the nutritional status and the severity of liver disease.
Results: the frequency of malnutrition among the studied patients varied from 25.7 % by BMI to 98 % by PNI and CONUT. There was difference in degree of malnutrition between the different groups of liver disease however, this variation was not significant when anthropometric measures and body composition analysis were used but was statistically significant when SGA, CHI, PNI and CONUT were used.
Conclusion: The nutritional status of cirrhotic patients is an important tool, together with Child and MELD scores, for the prediction of prognosis of such patients. All the nutritional assessment tools are needed together with no substitution of one method by another for precise assessment of malnutrition among cirrhotic patients.