Amjad et al reported factors predictive of mortality for a patient with gastroparesis. These can help to identify a patient who may benefit from more aggressive management. The authors are from Albany Medical Center, University of Massachusetts, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University.
Patient selection: gastroparesis, age 18 to 90 years
Mortality rate during study period of 11 years: 14%
Diabetics had a higher mortality rate than nondiabetics (Figure 2).
Predictors for diabetics:
(1) advanced age (hazard ratio 1.06)
(2) chronic kidney disease (HR 4.7; GFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 sq m)
(3) malnutrition (HR 11.0)
Predictors for nondiabetics:
(1) advanced age (hazard ratio 1.05)
(2) COPD (HR 7.5)
(3) coronary artery disease (HR 9.7)
(4) malnutrition (HR 3.8)
(5) CKD (HR 10.2)
where:
• A cutoff for defining older age was not specified. Mean age 47.5. It is interesting that the standard deviation for total cases (5.3) was a third of the standard deviation for the 2 subgroups (15, 16.9).
• In diabetics coronary artery disease had a HR of 2.4 with p 0.05.
