Use of subjective global assessment and clinical outcomes in critically ill geriatric patients receiving nutrition support

PubMedID: 18596319The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of malnutrition and evaluate the nutrition status and clinical outcome in hospitalized patients aged 65 years and older receiving enteral-parenteral nutrition. This retrospective study was carried out at Başkent University Hospital, Adana, Turkey. A total of 119 patients older than 65 years were recruited. Patients were classified into 3 groups: protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), moderate PEM, and well nourished according to subjective global assessment (SGA) at admission. All patients were fed by enteral or parenteral route. Acute physiological and chronic health evaluation (APACHE-2) and simplified acute physiology (SAPS 2) scores were recorded in patients followed in the intensive care unit (ICU). Nutrition status was assessed with biochemical (serum albumin, serum prealbumin) parameters. These results were compared with mortality rate and length of hospital stay (LOS). The subjects' mean (±SD) age was 73.1 ± 5.4 years. Using SGA, 5.9% (n = 7) of the patients were classified as severely PEM, 27.7% (n = 33) were classified as moderately PEM, and 66.4% (n = 79) were classified as well nourished. Some 73.1% (n = 87) of the patients were followed in the ICU. Among all patients, 42.9% (n = 51) were fed by a combined enteral-parenteral route, 31.1% (n = 37) by an enteral route, 18.5% (n = 22) by a parenteral route, and 7.6% (n = 9) by an oral route. The average length of stay for the patients was 18.9 ± 13.7 days. The mortality rate was 44.5% (n = 53). The mortality rate was 43% (n = 34) in well-nourished patients (n = 79), 48.5% (n = 16) in moderately PEM patients (n = 33), and 42.9% (n = 3) in severely PEM patients (n = 7) (P =.86). The authors observed no difference between well-nourished and malnourished patients with regard to the serum protein values on admission, LOS, and mortality rate. In this study, malnutrition as defined by SGA did not influence the mortality rate of critically ill geriatric patients receiving enteral or parenteral nutrition. Furthermore, no factor was found to be a good predictor of survival. © 2008 the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition

Expression of Survivin, Bcl-2, P53 and Bax in Breast Carcinoma and Ductal Intraepithelial Neoplasia (DIN 1a)

PubMedID: 15149158Survivin is a recently discovered member of the family of proteins that inhibits apoptosis. This anti-apoptotic compound can be detected in most types of cancer and expression is associated with a poor prognosis. We, immunohistochemically, investigated the expression of survivin in breast carcinomas and intraductal epithelial neoplasia of the breast to determine whether expression of this protein is associated with clinicopathological parameters such as grade, stage, mitotic rate. In 34 out of 43 cases (79.1%) of breast carcinoma and 22 out of 62 cases (35.4%) of intraductal epithelial neoplasia with mild, moderate and severe ductal epithelial, cell hyperplasia stained positively for survivin. None of the histological parameters analyzed were significantly correlated with survivin expression in breast carcinomas. In the carcinoma cases, survivin expression was positively correlated with expression of bcl-2, but was not correlated with expression of p53, bax, c-erbB-2 and estrogen, or progesterone. Some of the intraductal epithelial neoplasia cases with moderate or severe ductal epithelial hyperplasia stained positively for both survivin and p53. Breast carcinomas exhibited a significant expression of survivin, p53, and bcl-2 compared to breast with intraductal epithelial neoplasia. Survivin was not correlated with any of the clinicopathological parameters studied, however it could be a useful tool in early carcinomas and florid, severe ductal epithelial hyperplasia