In a prospective cohort of 217 older adults undergoing elective cardiac surgery, 39.6% developed pulmonary complications. Among four tools, the Nutrition Alert Form had the highest AUC at only 0.643, and no tool remained independently associated after clinical adjustment. Nutritional screening should complement, not replace, perioperative risk assessment.
Key findings
- PPCs occurred in 86 patients (39.6%). NAF was higher with PPCs: median 7.5 (IQR 3-12) versus 5 (2-8), p
Why this matters globally
The transparently reported negative adjusted result helps prevent overuse of screening tools and supports models combining nutrition with frailty, comorbidity, cardiopulmonary status, and procedure factors.
Thai researcher contribution
Prince of Songkla anesthesiology and surgery teams with Walailak University evaluated practical tools in Thai cardiac-surgery care.
Limitations to consider
Single-center elective surgery limits transportability. An AUC of 0.643 is modest; multiple comparisons, calibration, threshold performance, missingness, and events-per-variable are not detailed in the abstract. Loss of adjusted association may reflect confounding and limited power.
Verify the original sources
NutrientsRead the original article↗DOI: 10.3390/nu18132211