Nutritional status, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and survival in patients with AIDS

The clinical course of 71 patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was evaluated to determine relationships among nutritional status, gastrointestinal symptoms and survival. At baseline, weight loss was present in 98%, hypoalbuminemia (less than 3.5 g/dl) was present in 83%, and gastrointestinal symptoms included pharyngitis (54%), diarrhea (42%), nausea (23%), dysphagia (21%), and anorexia (18%). Both the magnitude of body weight loss and the serum albumin level were strongly associated with life-table analysis of survival. For weight loss, median survival of 520 vs. 48 days occurred in patients with less than 10% versus greater than 20% baseline weight loss, respectively (p less than 0.01). The substantial influence of serum albumin on survival is outlined below. (table; see text) In almost all cases, serial evaluation demonstrated progressive linear decrease in body weight and albumin. In patients with normal baseline albumin, the rate of 0.7 mg/dl albumin decrease per day was less than half that in patients with baseline hypoalbuminemia. A projected "time to develop an albumin level less than 2.5 g/dl" was calculated for patient groups based on initial albumin level and the rate of albumin decrease. The calculated interval was similar to the actual median survival time observed in these groups. We conclude that 1) nutritional status may represent a major determinant of survival in AIDS and 2) the rate of albumin decrease may define a function limiting survival of individual patients with AIDS.