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Background & Aims: Sarcopenia is prevalent in patients with liver cirrhosis and is negatively associated with clinical outcomes. In a population screened for liver transplantation we aimed to assess the prevalence of abnormal nutritional status and to what extent a clinical screening tool is able to reliably select patients for extensive nutritional assessment including CT. We also evaluated which nutritional parameters are independently associated with clinical outcomes., Methods: Analysis of consecutive patients undergoing detailed nutritional assessment during pre-liver transplantation screening from October 2015 to April 2017., Results: In 102 included patients (66.7% male; median age of 56.3 years (IQR 43.9-64.0); median MELDNa score of 14.7 (IQR 9.4-19.0)), presarcopenia was diagnosed in 30/102 patients (29.4%), sarcopenia in 20/102 (19.6%), and impaired muscle quality in 19/102 (18.6%). Application of the European association for the Study of the Liver rapid screen tool as the primary instrument for nutritional assessment would have resulted in selection of 40/69 cases, thus 42.0% of patients with actual muscle mass depletion and/or impaired muscle function would not have been selected for further nutritional evaluation. In contrast to muscle mass depletion, impaired muscle function was a significant predictor for 6-month decompensation-free (p = 0.006) and hospitalization-free (p = 0.003) survival, when adjusted for age and MELDNa score., Conclusions: In our population the efficacy of a clinical screening tool for malnutrition was unsatisfactory. A detailed nutritional assessment is therefore recommended in all patients undergoing liver transplantation screening. Impaired muscle function might be clinically more relevant than muscle mass depletion, and muscle function testing should be considered an integral part of nutritional assessment in chronic liver disease., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have nothing to disclose regarding funding or conflict of interest with respect to this manuscript., (Copyright © 2020 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of this study was to show or to exclude an effect of dietary supplement on rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. We have studied the effect of a dietary supplement (verum, administered for 6 weeks) containing plant estrogens, antioxidants, including carotenoids, selenium and other putative prostate cancer inhibiting substances in a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind crossover study in 37 hormonally untreated men with prostate cancer and increasing PSA levels. Outcome measures were changes in the rates of change of serum concentrations of total and free PSA and changes in male sex hormone levels. Male sex hormone levels were significantly lower during the verum phase (DHT: -0.11 nmol/L, p = 0.005; testosterone: -1 nmol/L, p = 0.02). Total PSA doubling time was unaffected. Free PSA, which increased during the placebo phase (average doubling time of 68 weeks), decreased during the verum period (average half-life of 13 weeks; p = 0.02). In those men in whom the free androgen index decreased (21 out of 32), a significant decrease in the slopes of both total and free PSA was observed (p = 0.04). Overall total PSA doubling times did not increase significantly during verum. However, the study demonstrates that this dietary intervention reduces DHT and testosterone levels and increases free PSA doubling time (and total PSA doubling time in a relevant subgroup). If future studies confirm that these observations translate into a slowing of disease progression, a dietary intervention may become an attractive option for prostate cancer treatment and prevention., ((c) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)