PP288 - CALF CIRCUMFERENCE AS A PRACTICAL TOOL TO ASSESS GLIM-DEFINED MALNUTRITION SEVERITY IN AMBULATORY ONCOLOGY PATIENTS

PP288

CALF CIRCUMFERENCE AS A PRACTICAL TOOL TO ASSESS GLIM-DEFINED MALNUTRITION SEVERITY IN AMBULATORY ONCOLOGY PATIENTS

M. D. Arias Soberon¹, K. Alvarez Altamirano², M. P. Bejarano³, V. Fuchs Tarlovsky^4,*

¹Clinical Nutrition, ²Research Direction , ³Hospital General de Mexico, Dr Eduardo Liceaga, Mexico City, Mexico, ⁴Nutrition and metabolism research unit, Hospital General de Mexico, Dr Eduardo Liceaga, Mexico City, Mexico

Rationale: The Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) recommends assessing muscle mass to diagnose and grade the severity of malnutrition. However, access to advanced body composition techniques is limited, highlighting the need for simple alternatives such as calf circumference (CC). The aim of the study was to evaluate crude and BMI-adjusted calf circumference for assessing malnutrition severity within the GLIM framework in patients with oncological and hematological diseases.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, ambulatory adult cancer patients at nutritional risk (NRS-2002) were included. Malnutrition was diagnosed and classified according to the GLIM criteria. CC (crude and BMI-adjusted) was analyzed as a surrogate marker of muscle mass. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and multivariable logistic regression were performed.

Results: Among 194 patients, 65.5% had severe malnutrition. Severe cases showed lower BMI, calf circumference, and ASMI (all p < 0.01). Crude and BMI-adjusted calf circumference showed similar diagnostic performance (AUC 0.782 vs 0.778). Crude values had higher specificity, while BMI-adjusted values showed higher sensitivity. BMI-adjusted calf circumference remained independently associated with severe malnutrition (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.57–0.79, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: These findings support the use of calf circumference as a feasible and accessible tool for GLIM-based malnutrition assessment in routine clinical oncology practice.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared