Clinical assessment of nutritional status at birth. Fetal malnutrition and SGA are not synonymous.

Fetal malnutrition is a common and potentially serious problem perinatally and for later growth and development. Unless sought in the neonate, fetal malnutrition is frequently missed but can be detected readily by a simple clinical examination.

Smoking in pregnancy: relation of birth weight to maternal plasma carotene and cholesterol levels.

Not all mothers who smoke during pregnancy deliver small infants. Nutritional supplementation during pregnancy apparently protects the fetuses of some mothers. Our previous studies showed that plasma levels of carotene and cholesterol were correlated with birth weight.

Energy production, intracellular amino acid pools, and protein synthesis in chronic renal disease.

Intracellular glycolytic regulating enzyme activities, pyruvate kinase (PK) and phosphofructokinase (PFK), adenylate kinase (AK), energy charge (Ech), free amino acids (ICAA), and protein synthesis (PS) were measured in polymorphonuclear leukocytes--used as a cell model--in 62 adults and 12 children with chronic renal failure, and 66 normal adults and 21 children as comparison controls. In normal subjects, children had significantly lower enzyme activities and cell amino acid levels but similar Ech and higher PS than adults. ICAA concentrations were significantly higher than plasma amino acid concentrations (PAA) in both groups, and the PAA were not correlated with, nor indicative of, the ICAA concentrations.