Study design (if review, criteria of inclusion for studies)
block design study
Participants
9 malnourished CF patients during enteral feedings
Interventions
semielemental formula (Criticare), a higher protein density but nonelemental formula (Traumacal) (T), and a nonelemental formula that had been modified to become isocaloric and isonitrogenous to the semielemental formula (modified Traumacal, MT).
Outcome measures
efficacy: whole-body protein turnover using the [15N]glycine method was studied
Main results
No significant differences in rates of protein synthesis or catabolism were observed comparing the three formulas. However, the higher protein density nonelemental formula resulted in higher net protein deposition compared to the other two formulas (T + 0.42 g kg-1 10 h-1 versus 0.33 g kg-1 10 h-1 for Criticare and -0.59 g kg-1 10 h-1 for MT), although this was significant (p<0.05) for the MT versus T comparison only.
Authors' conclusions
This study lends support to the use of less expensive nonelemental formulas for the nutritional management of malnourished patients with CF.