Jacob R A, Milne D B
Western Human Nutrition Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Presidio of San Francisco, California.
Clin Lab Med. 1993 Jun;13(2):371-85.
The choice of nutritional assessment tests must be made with care, as the available tests may reflect recent dietary intakes or body tissue stores to different degrees. The interpretation of nutritional assessment tests is complicated by the dynamic nature and broad range of nutrient intake and metabolism and by a relative lack of age- and sex-specific reference ranges. The latter problem can be minimized by the use of function-based methods, such as the measurement of vitamin-dependent red cell enzyme activities to assess B vitamin status; however, few suitable function-based methods are now available, and more research in this area is needed. Because calibration standards and quality control materials may not be readily available, laboratory analysts planning nutritional assessment testing must be especially careful in establishing the credibility of assays and the quality control program. Recent advances in analytic methodology include the specificity offered by HPLC techniques and methodologies that provide simultaneous determination of more than one nutrient (or form of nutrient) in a single procedure. Examples of the latter include HPLC methods that provide B vitamin or fat-soluble vitamin profiles, and emission spectrometry techniques that provide trace metal profiles. Further work in providing useful nutritional assessment profiles and convenient automated methods is needed.
营养评估测试的选择必须谨慎，因为现有的测试可能在不同程度上反映近期的饮食摄入量或身体组织储备。营养评估测试的解读因营养摄入和代谢的动态性质、广泛范围以及相对缺乏针对年龄和性别的参考范围而变得复杂。通过使用基于功能的方法，如测量依赖维生素的红细胞酶活性来评估B族维生素状态，后一个问题可以得到最小化；然而，目前可用的合适的基于功能的方法很少，这一领域需要更多的研究。由于校准标准品和质量控制材料可能不易获得，计划进行营养评估测试的实验室分析人员在确立检测方法的可信度和质量控制程序时必须格外小心。分析方法的最新进展包括高效液相色谱（HPLC）技术所提供的特异性，以及能够在单个程序中同时测定多种营养素（或营养素形式）的方法。后者的例子包括提供B族维生素或脂溶性维生素谱的HPLC方法，以及提供痕量金属谱的发射光谱技术。在提供有用的营养评估谱和便捷的自动化方法方面还需要进一步开展工作。
