Contribución de la dinamometría y la evaluación global del Royal Free Hospital en la evaluación nutricional de la enfermedad hepática crónica Contribution of dynamometry and the Royal Free Hospital global assessment to the nutritional assessment of patients with chronic liver diseases

Protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM) is a prognostic factor increasing complications and mortality in chronic liver diseases. Objectives: To quantify the dietary intake and compare different methods of nutritional assessment in patients with chronic liver diseases. Ninety seven outpatients of Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, with chronic hepatits (CH) and cirrhosis (CIR), were assessed from April 2009 to January 2010. The CH patients presented higher calorie and protein intake (p<0.05) than the CIR patients. Malnutrition prevalence in CH and CIR groups by the Royal Free Hospital-Global Assessment (RFH) was 51.2 vs 84%, Hand Grip Strength 61 vs 82.1%, Subjective Global Assessment 14.6 vs 32.1%, Adductor Pollices Muscle 7.3 vs 14.3%, Arm Muscle Circumference 4.9 vs 14.3% and Body Mass Index 2.4 vs 3.6% (p<0.05), respectively. HGS and RFH were the best methods to identify malnutrition and present concordance with each other. Key-words: Nutritional assessment, liver disease, handgrip strength, eating.