Nutritional status in intensive care patients: evaluation in 84 unselected patients.

A prospective nutritional evaluation of 84 unselected patients admitted to a multidisciplinary ICU was performed using anthropometric measurements, creatinine height index (CHI), and serum protein assays. All values tested were significantly lower than those of 40 healthy controls. A matrix of correlation coefficients showed many similarities among the variables studied. Fatal outcome and poor prognosis indices, such as sepsis and renal failure, were analyzed separately. Anthropometric measurements and CHI were not different in the separate groups. Albumin (Alb) and transferrin (Tr) were not different in patients with or without sepsis. Retinol binding prealbumin was significantly higher in patients with renal failure. Thyroxin-binding prealbumin (TBPA) was significantly lower in all the groups. We emphasize the interest of this rapid turnover protein in evaluating nutritional status. We suggest: (1) a systematic nutritional assessment, and (2) an aggressive nutritional support in the ICU patient.