Prospective analysis of serum carotenoids, vitamin A, and tocopherols in adults with short bowel syndrome undergoing intestinal rehabilitation.

Objective: Carotenoids, vitamin A, and tocopherols serve important roles in many key body functions. However, availability of these compounds may be decreased in patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS) due to decreased oral intake of fruits and vegetables and/or decreased intestinal absorption. Little information is available on serum concentrations of carotenoids, vitamin A, and tocopherols during chronic parenteral nutrition (PN) or during PN weaning.

Efficacy of parenteral nutrition supplemented with glutamine dipeptide to decrease hospital infections in critically ill surgical patients.

Background: Nosocomial infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU). Clinical benefits of glutamine-supplemented parenteral nutrition may occur in hospitalized surgical patients, but efficacy data in different surgical subgroups are lacking. The objective was to determine whether glutamine-supplemented parenteral nutrition differentially affects nosocomial infection rates in selected subgroups of SICU patients.

Nutrient intake from habitual oral diet in patients with severe short bowel syndrome living in the southeastern United States.

Objectives: Little data are published on the habitual home oral diet of patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS).

Methods: We assessed nutrient intake from oral food and beverages in 19 stable patients with severe SBS who live in the southeastern United States. Intestinal absorption of energy, fat, nitrogen (N), and carbohydrate (CHO) was determined in a metabolic ward.

Metabolic effects of enteral versus parenteral alanyl-glutamine dipeptide administration in critically ill patients receiving enteral feeding: a pilot study.

Background: Glutamine (Gln) may become conditionally indispensable during critical illness. The short-term metabolic effects of enteral versus parenteral Gln supplementation are unknown in this clinical setting.

Objectives: We studied metabolic effects of intravenous (i.

Depletion of plasma antioxidants in surgical intensive care unit patients requiring parenteral feeding: effects of parenteral nutrition with or without alanyl-glutamine dipeptide supplementation.

Objectives: Antioxidant depletion is common in critically ill patients. This study was designed to determine the effects of parenteral nutrition (PN), with or without glutamine (Gln) supplementation, on systemic antioxidant status in adult patients after major surgery who required PN in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) setting.

Methods: Fifty-nine patients in the SICU who required PN after pancreatic surgery or cardiac, vascular, or colonic (non-pancreatic) surgery were randomized in a double-blinded study to receive standard PN (Gln-free) or Gln-supplemented PN (Gln-PN) in which Gln was provided as alanyl-Gln dipeptide.

Detectable serum flagellin and lipopolysaccharide and upregulated anti-flagellin and lipopolysaccharide immunoglobulins in human short bowel syndrome.

Gut barrier dysfunction may occur in short bowel syndrome (SBS). We hypothesized that systemic exposure to flagellin and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in SBS might regulate specific immune responses. We analyzed serial serum samples obtained from parenteral nutrition (PN)-dependent patients with SBS versus non-SBS control serum.

Are plasma citrulline and glutamine biomarkers of intestinal absorptive function in patients with short bowel syndrome?

Sensitive biomarkers for intestinal absorptive function would be clinically useful in short bowel syndrome (SBS). Citrulline (Cit) is a product of the metabolism of glutamine (Gln) and derived amino acids by enterocytes. Cit is produced almost exclusively by the gut, which is also a major site of Gln metabolism.

Growth hormone favorably affects bone turnover and bone mineral density in patients with short bowel syndrome undergoing intestinal rehabilitation.

Background: Patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS) have a high prevalence of metabolic bone disease due to nutrient malabsorption and potential effects of parenteral nutrition (PN). Human growth hormone (hGH) has been shown in some studies to have anabolic effects on bone, but hGH effects on bone in patients with SBS are unknown.

Methods: Adults with PN-dependent SBS underwent a 7-day period of baseline studies while receiving usual oral diet and PN and then began receiving modified diets designed to improve nutrient absorption and daily oral calcium/vitamin D supplements (1500 mg elemental calcium and 600 IU vitamin D, respectively).

Distribution of the H+/peptide transporter PepT1 in human intestine: up-regulated expression in the colonic mucosa of patients with short-bowel syndrome.

Background: Intestinal adaptation after massive bowel resection in animal models is characterized by increased gut-mucosal growth and expression of nutrient transporters. Few data about these indexes exist in humans with short-bowel syndrome (SBS).

Objective: The objective was to compare small-bowel and colonic mucosal growth and expression of the peptide transporter PepT1 in adults with or without SBS.

Hyperglycemia: an independent marker of in-hospital mortality in patients with undiagnosed diabetes.

Admission hyperglycemia has been associated with increased hospital mortality in critically ill patients; however, it is not known whether hyperglycemia in patients admitted to general hospital wards is associated with poor outcome. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of in-hospital hyperglycemia and determine the survival and functional outcome of patients with hyperglycemia with and without a history of diabetes. We reviewed the medical records of 2030 consecutive adult patients admitted to Georgia Baptist Medical Center, a community teaching hospital in downtown Atlanta, GA, from July 1, 1998, to October 20, 1998.