Nutritional assessment of drug addicts. Relation with HIV infection in early stages.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the nutritional status of drug addicts without acute organic pathology, in order to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and to discern if early HIV infection is associated with a poor nutritional status in this group of patients.


METHODS
Prospective study.


METHODS
Detoxication unit of a university hospital.


METHODS
140 drug addicts without acute organic pathology. 31 patients were HIV+. No one fulfilled the definition of AIDS.


RESULTS
We found that drug addicts were undernourished: 92.4% weighed under the mean populational weight and 55.7% had a weight loss above 5%. The distribution of mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), triceps skinfold (TSF) and mid arm muscle area (MAMA) was lower than a reference normal population. Food intakes were poor; 66.4% of our patients complained of anorexia on admission. The mean caloric intake was 978 +/- 89 kcal/day in females and 1265 +/- 64 kcal/day in males. The mean protein intakes were 39.3 +/- 3.3 g/day in females (0.76 +/- 0.07 g/kg/day) and 49.7 +/- 2.7 g/day in males (0.77 +/- 0.04 g/kg/day). When we compared nutritional parameters between HIV+ and HIV- patients we found no differences.


CONCLUSIONS
Nutritional impairment in drugs abusers with early stages of HIV infection should be attributed to drug abuse rather than to HIV infection.
Gómez-Sirvent
J L
JL
Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
Santolaria-Fernández
F J
FJ
González-Reimers
C E
CE
Batista-López
J N
JN
Jorge-Hernández
J A
JA
Rodríguez-Moreno
F
F
Martínez-Riera
A
A
Hernández-García
M T
MT