mNUTRIC score may predict vasopressor use and mortality in critical patients in ICU

The high nutrition risk is characterized by lower calorie and protein intake, prolonged MV duration, vasopressor use for more than three days, extended hospital and ICU stay, and higher mortality rates.

This investigation is published in BMC Anesthesiology.

Nutritional support is a crucial aspect of caring for critically ill patients. Nutrition Risk is tied to poor outcomes and complications in critically ill patients.

The Modified Nutrition Risk in the Critically ill (NUTRIC) score (mNUTRIC score) is a validated screening tool for critically ill patients admitted to ICU. This tool quantifies the risk of adverse outcomes.

Researchers in the present study evaluated the prognostic value of the mNUTRIC score to assess outcomes in this population.

The study results are elaborated below:

• Researchers enrolled 445 ICU patients.
• Based on the mNUTRIC score, individuals at high and low nutritional risk were 13.9 % and 86.1 %, respectively.
• The area under the curve (AUC) for predicting ICU mortality, using vasopressor, duration of vasopressor, and mechanical ventilation (MV) duration were 0.973, 0.807, 0.726 and 0.710, respectively.

Concluding further, they wrote we found an excellent predictive performance of the mNUTRIC regarding ICU mortality and using vasopressor, respectively. This was fair for Mechanical Ventilation and vasopressor duration and poor for ICU and length of stay.

The study’s strength includes prospective design and generalized results.

The study’s limitations are small sample size and lack of data on indicators of inflammation.

Further reading:

Mahmoodpoor, A., Sanaie, S., Sarfaraz, T. et al. Prognostic values of modified NUTRIC score to assess outcomes in critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care units: a prospective observational study. BMC Anesthesiol 23, 131 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12871-023-02086-0