Nutritional Status in Agammaglobulinemia: An Italian Multicenter Study

Abstract

Although primary antibody deficiencies may be associated with undernutrition, there is just one published study on the nutritional status of patients with primary immunodeficiencies. In this multi-center study of XLA and ARA patients, overweight and obesity (38 %) were much more common than undernutrition (5 %). The low frequency of undernutrition is at least partly attributable to the appropriate immunoglobulin replacement therapy, which is known to decrease the occurrence of infectious disease and to increase the life expectancy. In conclusion, the most interesting finding of this study is the unexpected high frequency of apparent overnutrition with excess body weight in a group of XLA and ARA patients. No one displayed enough features justifying the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome