3.1. Baseline Characteristics of the Groups
gastrointestinal symptoms, abdominal pain, sarcopenia, Sarcopenia, malnutrition, weight loss
SARCOPENIA, SARCOPENIA, MALNUTRITION
Thirty-eight patients were included. Most of them were male (71.1%) with a median age of 67.5 y-old. Both groups were comparable in most clinical variables (Significantly, there were no significant differences between baseline LVEF and NT-proBNP levels between both groups. Despite this, control patients tended to complain more frequently about abdominal pain (21.1% vs. 0%, Baseline malnutrition according to the GLIM criteria was observed only in 24% of patients, while 65.8% presented with sarcopenia. Specifically, most patients presented handgrip strength < p5 (28.9%), followed by p25 (23.1%), p50 (21.1%) and p10 (13.2%). Handgrip strength > p50 was observed only in 13.2% of the evaluated patients. There were no statistically significant differences in the distribution of sarcopenia and malnutrition in both groups, but sarcopenia tended to be higher in the control group (78.9% vs. 52.6%; Sarcopenia was associated with increased age and increased C-RP serum levels, but not with NT-proBNP levels or LVEF (At baseline, NT-proBNP levels negatively correlated with some BIA parameters including body weight, BMI, BCME, ECME, and fat-, lean- and bone mass; anthropometric parameters including abdominal and arm circumference; both functional parameters, increased time in the up-and-go test and decreased handgrip strength, and muscle ultrasound parameters including RF area, circumference, X-axis; and adipose tissue. NT-proBNP also negatively correlated with hemoglobin, albumin, prealbumin, and triglycerides; in contrast, it positively correlated with C-RP serum levels. LVEF negatively correlated only with serum hemoglobin (Adherence to OS was assessed every 21 days. At the end of the study, 71.1% of patients took two supplements per day, 9.8% one per day, 1.9% one and a half per day, and 0.5% half an OS per day.After twenty-four weeks of intervention, there were no significant differences between the prevalence of new hospital admissions, weight loss, or gastrointestinal symptoms; the number of resting hours still tended to be higher in the control group (median 8 vs. 4.5 h/day, At the end of the study, NT-proBNP levels negatively correlated with lymphocytes, serum prealbumin, and triglycerides, while LVEF negatively correlated with RF X-axis in controls (