title: Effects of long-term nutritional rehabilitation on body composition and clinical status in malnourished children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis.
abstract: Fourteen patients aged 4.9 to 21.5 years with cystic fibrosis and moderate to severe lung disease, malnutrition, or growth failure were given nocturnal supplemental feeding by gastrostomy tube. Mean follow-up was for 1.1 years (range 0.8 to 2.78 years). Patients were studied to observe the effect of nutritional support on body composition, growth, pulmonary function, and quality of life. A contemporary group of patients with CF was retrospectively pair matched to the study group. The supplemental feeding resulted in positive changes in body composition and in growth velocity. Weight, as a percentage of standard in the control group, declined by 3% over 1 year, whereas it increased by 2% in the treatment group (P less than 0.05). Pulmonary function, assessed as a percent of predicted FVC and FEV1, did not change significantly in the treatment group over 1.1 years, whereas FVC declined by 12% (P less than 0.01) and FEV1 declined by 13% (P less than 0.01) in the control group. There was a marked increase in patient ability to participate in activities of daily living, even in those patients in whom pulmonary function deteriorated during the study.
mesh_terms: D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D005260:Female; D005774:Gastrostomy; D006801:Humans; D008176:Lung Volume Measurements; D008297:Male; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D011446:Prospective Studies