Which nutritional measurements assess protein-energy nutritional status in patients receiving home parenteral nutrition?
Weight, midarm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, arm muscle circumference, albumin, prealbumin, transferrin and total lymphocyte count were measured at each outpatient visit in patients reveiving home parenteral nutrition from September 1987 to November 1991. Each nutritional variable was analysed for individuals and for the whole group. Group data were expressed using the actual values obtained and successive differences (the change between clinic attendances). Nutritional variables were evaluated using a correlation matrix. Identical analysis of individual and group data demonstrates that laboratory investigations are of little value in the assessment of nutritional status in patients receiving home parenteral nutrition. Anthropometry detected changes in body weight secondary to changes in muscle and/or fat in 80% of patients. Pooling anthropometric data distors the relationship between variables owing to inter-individual variability when actual values are used. The method of successive differences is the preferred method of analysis for group anthropometric data.
Gray
P R
PR
Department of Surgery, University of Manchester, Hope Hospital, Salford, UK.
Carlson
G L
GL
Wright
C
C
Irving
M
M