[Immunologic consequences of malnutrition: assessment with multitest].
Presentation of a clinical study of 256 patients eligible for elective surgery, with the purpose of evaluating the immunological consequences of malnutrition. With this aim, retarded hypersensitivity skin tests were performed. The malnutrition criteria used included 10% normal weight loss and/or seric albumin levels of less than 3.5 g/dl. There were 99 patients in total (38.67%) with malnutrition criteria. Within this group 21.79% showed positive responses compared to 38.88% of control group (p less than 0.001). The "average papule" in the group suffering from malnutrition was 4.18 +/- 2.06 and in the control group, 3.64 +/- 2.20 (p less than 0.001), with a significant increase in tuberculine papule in the group with malnutrition.