title: [Prevalence of protein malnutrition on admission in internal medicine. Study of 260 hospitalized adults].
abstract: The nutritional protein status of 260 unselected adult patients admitted to an internal medicine hospital unit and of 60 healthy controls was evaluated by measurement of the brachial muscular perimeter and of the weight--height ratio and by assay of serum albumin, prealbumin, retinol-binding protein and transferrin. The values most frequently low were those of retinol-binding protein (66%), prealbumin (42%) and albumin (25%). The sensitivity of short half-life serum protein assays is underlined. Twenty-eight p.cent of patients were found to have protein malnutrition on admission, most of these being women and patients older than 60 years. In view of the scattering of most values in controls according to age and/or sex, it is suggested that individual reference values should be determined for this type of study and that no comparison should be made with data found in the literature.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D001798:Blood Proteins
vernacular_title: Prévalence de la dénutrition protidique à l'admission en médecine interne. Etude de 260 adultes hospitalisés.