Prognostic nutritional index and prognosis of patients with coronary artery disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: This review assessed if prognostic nutritional index (PNI) can predict mortality and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.

Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase were searched up to 1st November 2022 for all types of studies reporting adjusted associations between PNI and mortality or MACE in CAD patients. A random-effect meta-analysis was conducted for PNI as categorical or continuous variable. Subgroup analysis were conducted for multiple confounders.

Results: Fifteen studies with 22,521 patients were included. Meta-analysis found that low PNI was a significant predictor of mortality in CAD patients as compared to those with high PNI (HR: 1.67 95% CI: 1.39, 2.00 I ² = 95% p < 0.00001). Increasing PNI scores were also associated with lower mortality (HR: 0.94 95% CI: 0.91, 0.97 I ² = 89% p = 0.0003). Meta-analysis demonstrated that patients with low PNI had significantly higher incidence of MACE (HR: 1.57 95% CI: 1.08, 2.28 I ² = 94% p = 0.02) and increasing PNI was associated with lower incidence of MACE (HR: 0.84 95% CI: 0.72, 0.92 I ² = 97% p = 0.0007). Subgroup analyses showed mixed results.

Conclusion: Malnutrition assessed by PNI can independently predict mortality and MACE in CAD patients. Variable PNI cut-offs and high inter-study heterogeneity are major limitations while interpreting the results. Further research focusing on specific groups of CAD and taking into account different cut-offs of PNI are needed to provide better evidence.

Systematic review registration: No CRD42022365913 https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/.