Plasma zinc, rate of weight gain, and the energy cost of tissue deposition in children recovering from severe malnutrition on a cow's milk or soya protein based diet.

Thirty-four malnourished children were rehabilitated on either a cow's milk or a soya protein based formula diet. The soya diet contained 25% less zinc than the cow's milk diet and 1.33 mmol/l phytic acid.

Effect of zinc supplementation on the dietary intake, rate of weight gain, and energy cost of tissue deposition in children recovering from severe malnutrition.

Children recovering from severe malnutrition on a milk based diet have low plasma zinc concentrations: children recovering on a soya based diet have much lower plasma zinc concentrations, lower rates of weight gain, and higher energy costs of tissue deposition. However, they do not demonstrate the clinical features of anorexia, diarrhea, and skin lesions usually associated with zinc deficiency. We therefore supplemented 16 children with zinc acetate on the basis that a therapeutic response to zinc constitutes the best evidence of a preexisting zinc deficiency.

Leucocyte sodium transport and dietary zinc in protein energy malnutrition.

Zinc supplementation of children who were just completing a period of rapid "catch-up" growth during recovery from severe malnutrition was found to stimulate sodium transport in their leucocytes. These results suggest that zinc status should be studied in the large number of serious illnesses, now known or thought to be associated with impaired sodium transport.

Albumin and nutritional oedema.

The nature of the association between plasma albumin and nutritional oedema has been examined by observing the changes in albumin during loss of oedema in patients on a restricted diet. Since there was no difference in the concentration of plasma albumin before and after loss of oedema, the association is not causal. These results provide no support for the assertion that nutritional oedema should be treated with a high-protein diet or an albumin infusion.

Plasma zinc and the clinical features of malnutrition.

Human protein-energy malnutrition and zinc deficiency have common clinical features. These were related to the plasma zinc concentrations in 42 severely malnourished children. A low plasma zinc concentration was strongly associated with nutritional edema but not with the degree of edema or the plasma albumin concentration.

Zinc and immunocompetence in protein-energy malnutrition.

Malnourished children have thymic atrophy which is reversed by zinc supplementation. To see if their defect in cell-mediated immunity was also associated with zinc deficiency ten children were skin-tested with Candida antigen on both arms. One test site was covered with local zinc sulphate and the other with placebo ointment.

Effect of zinc on leucocyte sodium transport in vitro.

1. In a preparation of human leucocytes maintained in tissue culture fluid, increasing the extracellular zinc concentration leads to a significant increase in both ouabain-sensitive sodium efflux and in sodium influx. 2.

Effect of zinc on thymus of recently malnourished children.

Zinc-deficient animals and children have thymic atrophy and an increased susceptibility to infections. Children with protein-energy malnutrition similarly have thymic atrophy, zinc deficiency, and increased susceptibility to infections. 8 children, recently malnourished, who were supplemented with zinc, showed an increase in thymic size as judged radiographically.

Aberrant bacterial forms from various ocular sites.

Patients may harbor cell-wall-deficient organisms or other aberrant bacterial forms (ABFs) in their eyes. In this survey of 400 cultures, we found the incidence of ABFs isolated from various ocular sites to be 13.2%.

Ocular penetration of topically applied gentamicin.

The biologically available concentration of gentamicine sulfate in eight ocular tissues of 140 rabbits and 96 humans was measured by a modified disc diffusion technique. If enough topically administered gentamicine was applied, this bioassay detected it in all ocular tissues tested except the lens nucleus. The decay of antibiotic activity was faster in some tissues, eg, aqueous, than in others.

Comparison of antibiotic therapy in presumptive bacterial conjunctivitis.

One hundred twenty patients who met criteria for presumptive bacterial infections of the conjunctiva were closely recorded for two weeks in a double-blind study that compared the effectiveness of gentamicin with a combination of neomycin and polymyxin B sulfates. The neomycin and polymyxin B combination demonstrated statistical superiority as measured by patient improvement and failure to respond to therapy. However, difficulties including chance distribution of bacteria and variability of organism resistance may have detracted from statistical results.