Affaticati Letizia Maria, Capuzzi Enrico, Zuliani Tommaso, Legnani Francesca, Vaccaro Nadia, Manzo Francesca, Scalia Alberto, La Tegola Davide, Nicastro Monica, Colmegna Fabrizia, Clerici Massimo, Dakanalis Antonios, Buoli Massimiliano
Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milan Bicocca, Monza, Italy.
Department of Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori, Monza, Italy.
Brain Behav. 2025 Jun;15(6):e70584. doi: 10.1002/brb3.70584.
Anorexia nervosa (AN) presents the highest rate of mortality among psychiatric disorders, making an early diagnosis and proper management essential. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of duration of untreated illness (DUI) on the course and biochemical parameters in a sample of 76 female patients with AN.
Correlation analyses and one-way analyses of variance were performed to analyze the relation between DUI and quantitative and qualitative variables, respectively. Statistically significant factors from correlation analyses were inserted in a linear regression model as independent variables with the DUI as the dependent variable.
A longer DUI was directly correlated with age (r = 0.35, p < 0.01), duration of illness (r = 0.61, p < 0.01), potassium (K) plasma levels (r = 0.47, p = 0.02), and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) (r = 0.25, p = 0.04). A longer DUI was inversely correlated with the sodium/potassium ratio (Na/K) (r = -0.42, p = 0.047). Linear regression analysis confirmed the direct association between a longer DUI with age (B = 0.12, p = 0.01) and K levels (B = 3.18, p = 0.017).
The higher K plasma levels in patients with longer DUI may indicate an abuse of supplements and/or an alteration of the hypothalamus-pituitary-axis (HPA) or renin-angiotensin systems. In support of this hypothesis, alterations in PLR were identified in subjects with abnormal bone mineral density. Further research is needed to confirm the present findings.
神经性厌食症（AN）在精神疾病中死亡率最高，因此早期诊断和妥善管理至关重要。本研究的目的是调查76例女性AN患者样本中未治疗疾病持续时间（DUI）对病程和生化参数的作用。
分别进行相关性分析和单因素方差分析，以分析DUI与定量和定性变量之间的关系。相关性分析中具有统计学意义的因素被作为自变量插入线性回归模型，以DUI作为因变量。
较长的DUI与年龄直接相关（r = 0.35，p < 0.01）、病程（r = 0.61，p < 0.01）、血钾（K）水平（r = 0.47，p = 0.02）和血小板/淋巴细胞比率（PLR）（r = 0.25，p = 0.04）。较长的DUI与钠/钾比率（Na/K）呈负相关（r = -0.42，p = 0.047）。线性回归分析证实较长的DUI与年龄（B = 0.12，p = 0.01）和K水平（B = 3.18，p = 0.017）之间存在直接关联。
DUI较长的患者血钾水平较高可能表明存在补充剂滥用和/或下丘脑 - 垂体轴（HPA）或肾素 - 血管紧张素系统的改变。为支持这一假设，在骨矿物质密度异常的受试者中发现了PLR的改变。需要进一步研究以证实目前的发现。
