Is prognostic nutritional index a predictive marker for estimating all-cause in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular risk factors?
Tufan Çınar, Mert İlker Hayıroğlu, Vedat Çiçek and 7 others
PMID 33482433WHAT IT FOUND
In hospitalized COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular risk factors, a low prognostic nutritional index predicted in-hospital death.
Patients in the lowest index group had 11.2 times higher mortality than the highest group after adjusting for age and other markers.
Key findings
01A low prognostic nutritional index was an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality, with an odds ratio of 0.688 per unit increase.
02Patients in the lowest tertile of prognostic nutritional index had 11.2 times higher rates of in-hospital mortality than those in the highest tertile after adjustment.
03The prognostic nutritional index had an area under the curve of 0.79 for predicting survival, which was significantly higher than albumin or lymphocyte count alone.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study looked at only one hospital, so results may not apply to other regions. It was retrospective, meaning researchers looked back at records rather than following patients forward, which can introduce selection bias. Body mass index could not be calculated because weight and height data were missing for many patients. The sample size was relatively small and the ethnic background of the patients was not characterized.
Declared interests
All authors declared that they do not have conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the prognostic nutritional index as a validated screening tool that improves outcomes. The study shows an association with mortality but did not test whether acting on the index reduces deaths, and it performed worse than the 4C mortality score.