AUTHOR=Zhu Bingcheng , Ou Yunwei , Guo Xufei , Liu Weiming , Wu Liang 

TITLE=Poor nutritional status is associated with incomplete functional recovery in elderly patients with mild traumatic brain injury

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1131085

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2023.1131085

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=Background: Geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) is a simple index for evaluating the nutrition status of elderly patients. Many investigations demonstrated that this index is associated with prognosis of several diseases. This study aims to identify the relationship between GNRI and recovery of elderly mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients.
Methods: 228 mTBI patients older than 65 years were included in this study. The mTBI was defined as an injury to the brain with loss of consciousness of 30 minutes or less and duration of posttraumatic amnesia less than 24 hours and a Glasgow Coma Scale score (GCS) of 13 to 15. The Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), an outcome scale assessing functional independence, work, social activities and personal relationships, was applied to assess the recovery of patients. The clinical outcome was divided into complete recovery (GOSE = 8) and incomplete recovery (GOSE≤7).
Results: The receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis demonstrated that the cut-off value of GNRI was 97.85 and the area under curve (AUC) was 0.860. Compared with patients with high GNRI, patients with low GNRI were older, had higher prevalence of anemia, acute subdural hematoma, subarachnoid hemorrhage, had a higher age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index and lower levels of albumin, lymphocyte and hemoglobin. After adjusting age, sex and other important factors, elevated GNRI was associated with a low risk of incomplete recovery.
Conclusion: The GNRI can be applied as an accurate and objective tool for assessing the recovery of elderly patients with mTBI.