Malnutrition status in patients of very advanced age with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation and its impact on clinical outcomes.

Background And Aims: Malnutrition is associated with adverse outcomes in patients with chronic disease. We screened malnutrition among patients of very advanced age with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) by malnutrition scores and investigated the associations between malnutrition and clinical outcomes.

Methods And Results: This retrospective observational study included 461 patients aged ≥80 years with nonvalvular AF. Malnutrition was screened using the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT), Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), and Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) scores. The primary endpoints were composite events, including thromboembolic events and all-cause death. Malnutrition was present in 62.9%, 5.0%, and 21.9% of patients according to the CONUT, PNI, and GNRI scores, respectively. During a median 27-month follow-up, 130 (28.2%) patients had composite events. Kaplan-Meier curves revealed that patients with moderate to severe malnutrition had the worst clinical outcomes (log-rank P < 0.05 for all scores). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that moderate to severe malnutrition was an independent predictor of composite events [hazard ratio (HR): 2.051, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 1.143-3.679, P = 0.016 for CONUT score; HR: 3.374, 95%CI: 1.898-5.998, P < 0.001 for PNI score; HR: 2.254, 95%CI: 1.381-3.679, P = 0.001 for GNRI score]. Addition of the CONUT or GNRI score to a baseline prediction model for composite events significantly improved the net reclassification improvement and integrated discrimination improvement (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Moderate to severe malnutrition was an independent predictor of adverse outcomes among patients of very advanced age with nonvalvular AF. Screening for malnutrition might provide useful information regarding prognosis and risk stratification.