Objective: To explore the association between the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score and disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC).
Methods: This retrospective study enrolled patients with UC. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected and compared. The CONUT score was obtained for each patient. The association between the CONUT score and laboratory parameters was analysed and the ability of the score to assess disease activity was evaluated.
Results: A total of 182 patients with UC were enrolled. Patients with active disease showed significantly increased inflammatory biomarkers and decreased nutritional biomarkers compared with patients in remission. Malnourished individuals had significantly elevated inflammatory biomarkers and significantly reduced haemoglobin, prealbumin and retinol-binding protein. The CONUT score was inversely correlated with haemoglobin, prealbumin, retinol-binding protein and was positively correlated with faecal calprotectin, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and platelet/lymphocyte ratio. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.655 (95% confidence interval, 0.557-0.752). The optimal cut-off value was 1.5 points, with a sensitivity of 75.7% and a specificity of 50.0%.
Conclusion: The CONUT score may evaluate the inflammatory response and nutritional status of UC patients, so it could be a potential biomarker to assess disease activity in UC.
Keywords: Ulcerative colitis; controlling nutritional status score; disease activity.