Extreme anorexia nervosa: medical findings, outcomes, and inferences from a retrospective cohort

Table 2 Medical complications between AN-R and AN-BP subtypes

	Cohort (N = 281)		AN-R (N = 175)				AN-BP (N = 106)
	N	%	N	%	Mean^a	SD^a	N	%	Mean^a	SD^a	t-test^b	p value
Body Temperature
Hypothermic during stay (< 36 °C)	168	60	110	65	35.8	0.1	58	35	35.8	0.2	1.59	0.11
Last hospital day < 36 °C					10	4–19			11	5–21	6084	0.85
%IBW on last day < 36 °C					61.5	6.3			65.8	7.2	4.12	< .0001
Heart Rate and EKG on Admission
Heart rate (bpm)					55.3	13.1			60.7	12.5	3.37	0.0009
Nadir heart rate (bpm) during stay					50.1	11.8			54.3	3.9	3.06	0.002
QTc value (ms)					421	31.4			436	37.2	1.41	< .001
High QTc (480–500 ms)	7	3	2	29			5	71
Critically high QTc (> 500 ms)	7	3	3	43			4	57
Junctional rhythm	5	2	1	20			4	80
Right axis	58	21	40	69			18	31
Liver Function
All normal LFTs (AST < 41; ALT < 46 U/L)	85	30	36	42			49	58
Modestly Abnormal (up to 3x normal)	101	36	60	59			41	41
Severely abnormal (> 3x normal)	95	34	79	83			16	17
Highest AST					197	145–348			238	136–537	383	0.76
Highest ALT					270	197–485			261	196–518	618	0.65
Hospital day LFTs peaked					4	0–12			5	0–12	6381	0.21
Blood Glucose
Hypoglycemia (< 3.3 mmol/L)	107	38	77	72	3.0	2.6–3.2	30	28	2.9	2.8–3.1	1637	0.45
Last hospital day glucose < 3.3 mmol/L					2	1–2			1	0–2	1963	0.06
Severe hypoglycemia (< 2.2 mmol/L)^c	24	9	20	83	1.8	1.6–2.0	4	17	1.9	1.4–2.1
Last hospital day glucose < 2.2 mmol/L					1	0–3			1	0–3

AN-R Anorexia nervosa restricting subtype, AN-BP Anorexia nervosa binge-purge subtype, IBW Ideal body weight, EKG Electrocardiogram, bpm Beats per minute, LFT Liver function tests, AST Aspartate aminotransferase test, ALT Alanine aminotransferase test
^aMedian (IQR) for not normally distributed variables
^bMann-Whitney U test
^cThere were too few values for an analysis between AN subtypes and severe hypoglycemia

ISSN: 2050-2974