Comparison between the NUTRIC score and modified NUTRIC score to predict hospital mortality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: A retrospective study.

Background: Nutrition status evaluation is essential for patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill (NUTRIC) and modified NUTRIC (mNUTRIC) scores are nutrition risk assessment tools specifically for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). The objective of this study was to validate and compare the accuracy of these two nutrition scores in predicting hospital mortality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Methods: This retrospective study screened adult patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass cardiac surgery in the ICU from June 2020 to August 2022. Patients were grouped according to NUTRIC score and mNUTRIC score within 24 h of ICU admission. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors affecting the prognosis of these patients. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) was used to compare the predictive performance of these two nutrition scores for hospital mortality.

Results: Data from 252 eligible patients (55.6% of whom were male) were analyzed. It was found that Acute Physiological and Chronic Health Evaluation Ⅱ score, aortic surgery, serum albumin level, NUTRIC score, and mNUTRIC score were independent influencing factors of hospital mortality. The AUC-ROC of the NUTRIC score and the mNUTRIC score for predicting hospital mortality were 0.830 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.778-0.874) and 0.824 (95% CI: 0.771-0.869), respectively. There was no significant difference in ROC curves between the two scores (P = 0.492).

Conclusions: Both the NUTRIC and mNUTRIC scores showed good predictive performance for hospital mortality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, and the mNUTRIC score might be a more convenient and cost-effective tool for nutrition risk assessment.