Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Eating disorders (ED) are prevalent psychiatric conditions with significant nutritional implications, posing a risk of life-threatening illness for patients. The chronic and recurrent nature of these disorders, along with normal laboratory test results, present challenges in their management and ongoing monitoring, which typically focuses on weight changes. Techniques like determining the phase angle using bioimpedance analysis or conducting functional muscle tests such as dynamometry can be valuable for monitoring the progression of these patients.

Objective: To evaluate changes in anthropometric measures (weight and body mass index), muscle function and body composition in patients with ED after hospital admission.

Methods: Patients with at least one hospital admission in the last three years. Anthropometric data, bioimpedance and dynamometry data were collected. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 25.

Results: Eighteen cases were included, 100% women with a mean age of 24+7.15 years. Anthropometric data at admission: weight 40.59+6.17 kg and BMI 14.70+1.45 kg/m². The 61.1% presented low phase angle (<5.5º). Dynamometry on admission: right arm 20.62+4.99 kg and left arm 19.27+6.35 kg. After 33.16+27.58 days of admission, a significant increase in weight was observed with a mean at discharge of 44.14+6.42 kg (P<0.05) and BMI of 16.18+1.78 kg/m² (P<0.05). At discharge, 55.6% continued with low phase angle. Improvements in functional muscle testing were observed, with right arm dynamometry of 23.71+5.00 kg (P=0.11) and left arm dynamometry of 22.24+4.91 kg (P=0.22) not significant.

Conclusions: The study population did not show significant alterations or improvements in the analytical parameters after admission, which is consistent with findings in the literature. These findings are more commonly observed in other eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa. Additionally, the phase angle did not exhibit significant improvement after admission, despite being previously reported by other authors. However, dynamometry did show improvement, even though the baseline values were not pathological. This study suggests that BMI and weight are sensitive parameters for determining the timing of admission and confirming the clinical stability of the patients.