title: Nutritional status in patients with chronic pancreatitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chronic pancreatitis (CP) patients have an increased risk of malnutrition. Information about nutritional status of CP outpatients is scarce, and simple, sensitive methods to identify patients at risk are lacking. This explorative cross-sectional study was performed to survey the nutritional status of CP outpatients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty patients with chronic or recurrent acute pancreatitis (RAP) had a nutritional assessment performed. Scores on nutritional screening tools and a quality of life questionnaire were assessed. General observations and relations between parameters were described.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-nine patients had CP and eleven patients had RAP. According to the nutritional screening tools, 28-50% of the patients had a moderate or high risk of malnutrition. All domains of the Short Form Health Survey were significantly lowered in CP patients (all P0.001) compared with the Dutch norm values. A considerable number of patients scored below the 5th percentile on anthropometric measures. Mini Nutritional Assessment could not identify all patients with very low anthropometric scores. Substantial weight loss was not a sensitive indicator for functional impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CP outpatients are at risk of malnutrition. Currently used screening methods (for example, weight loss) are likely to be not sensitive enough to identify all patients with impaired body composition and restricted function. Therefore, some patients with objective decline in nutritional status will remain unidentified. An extended nutritional assessment is recommendable in CP patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B P M
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Verhaegh
authors.forename: P L M
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Reijven
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Prins
authors.forename: J H M
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Brouns
authors.forename: A A M
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Masclee
authors.forename: Y C A
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Keulemans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D050500:Pancreatitis, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015431:Weight Loss