Keywords
Nutritional assessment
Risk screening
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Abstract
Objective: To compare the main nutritional screening and diagnostic tools used in adult patients with chronic liver disease. Methods: An integrative literature review was conducted in the PubMed, Cochrane Library, and SciELO databases, including original studies published between 2016 and 2025 in Portuguese and English. Studies involving adult patients with chronic liver disease or cirrhosis that used nutritional screening and/or assessment tools were selected. The selection process included title, abstract, and full-text review, resulting in 33 included studies. Extracted data comprised study design, population characteristics, tools applied, and main clinical outcomes. Results: Malnutrition showed high prevalence, varying according to the method employed. RFH-NPT demonstrated greater sensitivity for nutritional screening. For diagnosis, SGA, RFH-GA, and GLIM criteria were consistently associated with disease severity, sarcopenia, mortality, and length of hospital stay. Complementary measures such as handgrip strength, bioelectrical impedance analysis, and computed tomography were relevant for functional and body composition assessment. Final considerations: Malnutrition is frequent and underdiagnosed when isolated methods are used. The multimodal approach proved to be more effective, integrating early risk screening, structured nutritional diagnosis, and functional and body assessment.
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