OBJECTIVE: This study will compare Subjective Muscle Assessment with objective methods of nutritional assessment in presurgical patients. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study to compare nutritional assessment methods involving primary data in presurgical patients. Anthropometric measurements, laboratory tests and Subjective Muscle Assessment were carried out to assess the subjects' nutritional status. Kendall's tau-b coefficient was employed and values equal to or above 80.0% were considered excellent in terms of reliability. RESULTS: The protocol included 168 adult patients of both genders who would undergo major surgery. For Subjective Muscular Assessment, inter and intra-rater reliability was shown to be 77.0% and 89.0%, respectively. The muscle groups that presented the greatest percentage of trophic changes were the temporal and the masseter for both genders (female=53.5%; male=82.0). For women, a low reliability rate (<=51.0%) was found between Subjective Muscle Assessment and the objective methods, except for albumin and the gastrocnemius muscle (83.0%). Kendall's coefficient for men was shown to be 60.0% and 70.0%, thus revealing good reliability ( > or = 60.0% and <80.0%) when the body mass index and the arm circumference were compared with walking, mastication and interosseous muscles. CONCLUSION: 1. Subjective Muscle Assessment showed good diagnostic reproducibility. 2. Subjective trophic changes prevailed in the temporal and masseter muscles. 3. No excellent reliability was found between Subjective Muscle Assessment and the objective methods of nutritional assessment for both genders, except for that between albumin and the gastrocnemius muscle for women.
anthropometry; nutritional assessment; preoperative care
