[Protein-energy malnutrition: its effects on 4 metabolic parameters]

The usefulness of cholinesterase (CS) and cholesterol (CO) in evaluating the nutritional state has been studied, comparing them to two classic parameters: albumin (ALB) and transferrin (TF). The study was done on 73 patients between the ages of 17 and 93, suffering from different afflictions, all of whom were suffering from energy-protein malnutrition (EPM). The patients were divided according to whether the EPM was predominantly visceral (V) or non-visceral (NV), based on the following parameters: ALB, TF, total lymphocytes (TL), cellular immunity test (CIT), triceps skin fold (TSF) and muscular circumference (MC). Our results show significant differences between the V and NV groups for the 4 studied parameters, obtaining lower values for each in the V group. There were significant differences between the ages of both groups, while these did not have any influence on any of the parameters. We found a positive and significant correlation when comparing TF and ALB, TF and CO, TF and CS, CS and ALB, and lastly, CS and CO. There was no correlation between ALB and COO. From our data we concluded that serum cholinesterase is a useful parameter for evaluating the nutritional state of the hospitalized patients.