The relationship between nutritional status and Fetuin-A in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients

Objective: To investigate the relationship between fetuin-A and nutritional index parameters body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FM), fat free mass (FFM) and mini nutritional assessment (MNA (R)) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Design: Randomized, prospective study Setting: Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Gastroenterolgy, Medical School, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey Subjects: Seventy-six consecutive IBD out-patients and 24 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. IBD patients were grouped into: 1. BMI<18.5 kg/m(2); 2. BMI=18.5-24.9 kg/m(2); and 3. BMI >= 25 kg/m(2) and according to MNA (R) score as: 1. MNA (R) <17, 2. MNA (R)=17.5-23.5 and 3. MNA (R)>= 24. Interventions: Demographical data and nutritional index parameters (BMI, FM, FFM) were evaluated. MNA was assessed by a questionnaire. Main outcome measures: Fasting serum levels of albumin, glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, C-reactive protein (CRP), vitamin B12, folic acid, ferritin, fetuin-A, hemoglobin and white blood cell count were measured. Results: The level of CRP was significantly higher and fetuin-A was significantly lower (both P<.001) in IBD patients than in healthy subjects. Age (P<.001), MNA (R) total score (P=.001), FM (P<.001), FFM (P=.003) and fetuin-A (P=.012) were significantly different between the BMI groups. There was a significant difference in BMI (P<.001), FM (P<.001), FFM (P<.001), levels of Fetuin-A (P=.030) and CRP (P=.030) between MNA (R) groups. There was a weak correlation between fetuin-A and BMI (r=0.249,P=.030). Conclusion: in this study, fetuin-A, a negative acute phase protein is shown to be related to BMI in IBD patients. Serum fetuin-A levels were the lowest both in MNA<17 and BMI<18.5 kg/m(2), which showed us that it can predict nutritional status in IBD patients.