• Nutrition · Feb 2014

    Nutritional status measured by BMI is impaired and correlates with left ventricular mass in patients with systemic sclerosis.

    • Edoardo Rosato, Antonietta Gigante, Maria Ludovica Gasperini, Ilenia Molinaro, Gianluca Di Lazzaro Giraldi, Antonella Afeltra, Daria Amoroso, Felice Salsano, Filippo Rossi Fanelli, and Alessandro Laviano.
    • Department of Clinical Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
    • Nutrition. 2014 Feb 1;30(2):204-9.

    ObjectiveSystemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multisystemic chronic disease that is complicated by protein-energy malnutrition (PEM). Considering that PEM also may influence left ventricular mass (LVM), the aim of this study was to evaluate whether LVM is related to patients' nutritional status and to determine clinically relevant features of SSc.MethodsAdult patients referring to our institution were considered. Body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), involuntary weight loss, and the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms were recorded. Echocardiography was performed to assess LVM, using the Devereux regression formula. Results were then normalized by body surface area. Pattern, skin thickening, disease activity and severity, and duration were assessed to characterize SSc.ResultsNinety-four patents with SSc (81 women and 13 men; median duration of disease 7 y) were studied. The prevalence of PEM as assessed by BMI < 20 kg/m(2) was 19%, whereas 15% of patients reported involuntary weight loss of any degree. Patients who lost weight reported gastrointestinal symptoms more frequently (P < 0.05). PEM was not associated with disease activity. LVM (g/m(2)) correlated with patients' BMI (r = 0.32; P < 0.01), and the vascular domain of disease severity (DDS; r = 0.21; P < 0.05), but it showed a negative correlation with skin thickening (r = -0.21 P = 0.01). Patients with ulcers had a significantly greater LVM than patients without skin lesions.ConclusionsOur study shows that LVM correlates with patients' BMI, skin thickening, and the vascular domain of DSS. Therefore, LVM could serve as a marker of nutritional status and fibrosis in patients with SSc.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…