Efecto de la recuperación nutricia en la concentración sérica de lipoperoxidos en niños con desnutrición proteínico-energética primaria grave.

Objective. The purpose is to show lipid peroxide’s serum concentration trend during a four-week nutritional recovery period in children with primary and severe protein energy malnutrition (PEM). Methods. In a clinical intervention 12 primarily and severely malnourished children (three to 48 months of age) were included. Dependent variable: Serum lipid peroxide (LPO) concentration (nmol/mL). Independent variables: non lactose starting infant formula (200 kcal/kg/d and proteins 4 g/kg/d). Age, sex, nutritional recovery, weight/age, length/age and weight/length indices calculated and expressed as Z scores were included. For statistical analysis a repeated measure ANOVA model was applied. A non-parametric Mann Whitney U-Test was used to compare groups. Null hypothesis was rejected with a p value 0.05. Results. Throughout the study the LPO concentration was higher in subjects with PEM than in the control group (p< 0.001). There was a decrease in the LPO concentration (nmol/mL) between basal vs. two weeks (12.9 vs. 7.3, p = 0.06) and basal vs. four weeks (12.9 vs. 8.16, p = 0.08). Conclusion. LPO concentrations were significantly higher in children with severe PEM at the beginning and end of the four-week nutritional recovery period. This finding was probably associated with increased metabolism of the cellular tissue and/or the high consumption of energy and nutrients compared to a control group. The null hypothesis of basal-end differences in LPO serum concentrations could not be rejected due to the great variability in serum lipoperoxides in these children with severe primary proteinenergy malnutrition