Tumour necrosis factor alpha and oxidative stress as maintaining factors in the evolution of anorexia nervosa.

Objective: Aim of the study was to evaluate tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) axis and oxidative status in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) seeking a possible correlation with both nutritional status and evolution of the disease.

Subjects And Methods: Thirty-nine consecutive women with AN and an age-matched healthy control group were studied. Patients were 26±9 yr, with a body mass index (BMI) of 13.

Catheter-related complications in cancer patients on home parenteral nutrition: a prospective study of over 51,000 catheter days.

Background: Although home parenteral nutrition (HPN) is often indicated in cancer patients, many physicians are concerned about the risks potentially associated with the use of central venous access devices (VADs) in these patients. The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the actual incidence of VAD-related complications in cancer patients on HPN.

Methods: All adult cancer patient candidates for VAD insertion and HPN were enrolled.

Digestibility, palatability and emotional status after ingestion of an iced dessert: analysis of subjective responses in 100 healthy volunteers.

Food choices are influenced by many factors, perhaps the most important being availability. However, the desire to consume one item over another may be viewed as an outcome of sensory hedonic likes, situation and current internal state. In a previous preliminary report, an improvement of joy and mood, associated with good data of digestibility and palatability, was observed in a group of 30 healthy female subjects who consumed a coffee-flavoured iced dessert immediately after a standardized meal.

Nutritional care routines in Italy: results from the PIMAI (Project: Iatrogenic MAlnutrition in Italy) study.

Background/objectives: Disease-related malnutrition is a common comorbidity at hospital admission. The purpose of the present report was to describe the data on nutritional care routines collected during the Project: Iatrogenic MAlnutrition in Italy (PIMAI) study, as these may be helpful to avoid iatrogenic malnutrition and improve nutritional policies.

Subjects/methods: Standards of nutritional care were assessed on the basis of (1) adherence to study protocol (completeness of data collected); (2) attitude in assessing the nutritional status; (3) prescription of nutritional therapy (within 3 days) at least in patients presenting with overt malnutrition (body mass index (BMI) <18.

Objective and subjective assessment of digestion after ingestion of an iced dessert in healthy volunteers.

The aim of our study is to assess, with objective measures, the impact on digestion of a coffee-flavoured iced dessert ingested at the end of a standardized meal; moreover, a subjective assessment, using a specific questionnaire, was carried out in order to compare objective and subjective data. Ten healthy male volunteers, after ENT and psychological assessment, underwent two scintigraphic evaluations (standardized meal without and with coffee-flavoured iced dessert) and, after the meal, filled in a specific questionnaire named dynamic digestibility questionnaire. In our sample the ingestion of the coffee-flavoured iced dessert seemed to improve the digestibility of a standardized meal: the difference between the curves of gastric emptying without and with iced dessert is statistically significant.