Comparison of Nutritional Screening Tools in Liver Cirrhosis Patients
Comparison of Nutritional Screening Tools in Liver Cirrhosis Patients
This study compares two nutritional screening questionnaires in cirrhotic patients. All
 patients will be assessed with both questionnaires, besides a complete nutritional
 assessment.
Disease-related malnutrition is a health problem with high prevalence and associated costs.
 Poor nutritional status has an unfavorable effect on clinical outcomes in terms of
 complications, post-transplant survival and mortality in relation to the liver, in addition
 to a decrease in quality of life. The same complications of liver disease, such as
 hypoalbuminemia or ascites, make it difficult to assess malnutrition in cirrhotic patients.

 The use of screening tools defines the first step in the prevention and treatment of patients
 at risk of malnutrition or overt malnutrition. The use of screening tools to detect
 malnutrition upon admission to hospital improves the identification of malnourished patients
 by 50-80%, early treatment of patients can reduce hospital stay. It has been observed that
 nutritional interventions, after assessment of nutritional risk, appear to prevent
 complications and improve quality of life and survival rate in cirrhotic patients.

 Due to changes in body composition in cirrhotic patients (i.e. ascites), the most common
 questionnaires for screening for malnutrition (e.g. MUST, NRS-2002), which use anthropometric
 measures, have not been validated in cirrhosis and are therefore not considered suitable for
 malnutrition screening. On the contrary, in recent years two specific nutritional screening
 tools have been developed for cirrhotic patients, the Royal Free Hospital Nutritional
 Prioritizing Tool (RFH-NPT) and the Liver Disease Undernutrition Screening Tool (LDUST). Both
 questionnaires, however, require further validation against clinical outcomes in cirrhotic
 patients.

 This study will use two screening tools for malnutrition risk (RFH-NPT and LDUST), to compare
 their validity in detecting malnutrition risk in patients with liver cirrhosis. These tools
 will be validated by performing a nutritional assessment with the new diagnostic criteria of
 malnutrition promoted by the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition.

 Sarcopenia can occur in malnourished cirrhotic patients, so it will be of interest to know
 what the possible prevalence may be in the sample of patients studied. The use of the
 screening questionnaire SARC-F will allow an assessment of the prevalence of risk of
 sarcopenia. Situations such as malnutrition or sarcopenia can have an impact on the patient's
 health-related quality of life, so this parameter will be assessed using the Chronic Liver
 Disease Questionnaire.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients with cognitive impairment or major psychiatric disorder.

 -  Lack of consent from the patient for inclusion in the study.

 -  Any patient who is not suitable based on the researcher's own judgement.