Comparison of different assessments for evaluating malnutrition in Chinese patients with end-stage renal disease with maintenance hemodialysis

Nutritional status can be evaluated by the malnutrition-inflammation score (MIS), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and modified quantitative subjective global assessment (MQSGA). This study sought to determine the value of these methods for detecting malnutrition in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who were undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. A total of 84 patients with ESRD with maintenance hemodialysis were recruited for the evaluation of their nutritional states by MQSGA, MIS, and BIA. The potential correlation among these methods was analyzed, and there was a significant difference in the percentage of patients with malnutrition as determined by these methods. Although only 1 of 84 patients had a body fat percentage that was below normal, based on the BIA, all of the patients displayed malnutrition as analyzed by MIS, and 56 of 84 patients had malnutrition as determined by MQSGA. Importantly, the MQSGA scores were positively correlated with the MIS scores (r = 0.924, r2 = 0.855, P < .05), whereas no close association was found in results obtained by MQSGA score and BIA (r = −0.169, r2 = 0.029, P > .05) in this population. Our data indicate that MIS, not BIA, is a sensitive method for the evaluation of malnutrition in Chinese patients with ESRD with maintenance hemodialysis.