Three methods assess nutritional status of leukemia patients before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Some leukemia patients before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have nutritional risk or undernutrition, which was one of the main reasons that caused series of complications during transplantation. The aim of this study was to find out some appropriate methods to learn about the nutritional status of leukemia patients before HSCT.

Nutritional status of patients with leukemia was assessed with three common methods of nutritional assessment (nutritional risk screening 2002 (NRS2002), mini nutritional assessment (MNA) and subjective global assessment (SGA)) before HSCT. The assessment results of NRS2002 and MNA were compared by paired χ(2) test. The consistency was analyzed by Kappa test.

In this study, 13 of 50 patients (26.0%) with leukemia had nutritional risk before HSCT assessed by NRS2002, including 7 patients (14.0%) with undernutrition. Of 50 patients assessed by SGA, only 1 case (2.0%) was mild or moderate undernutrition, and the remaining 49 patients (98.0%) were well-nutrition. Assessed by MNA, 1 case (2.0%) was undernutrition, 11 cases (22.0%) were potential undernutrition, and 38 cases (76.0%) were well-nutrition. Paired χ(2) test results showed that the difference between NRS2002 and MNA was statistically significant (χ(2) = 13.64, P < 0.05); Kappa test results showed that they were consistent between NRS2002 and MNA (Kappa = 0.62, P < 0.05).

It is important to know the nutritional status of patients with leukemia before HSCT, and NRS2002 should be the first choice of nutritional assessment for patients with leukemia. If NRS2002 and MNA used at the same time, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the assessment can be improved.