Randomized controlled study of immune nutrition in patients with acute stress

Objective To explore the effects of immune-enhanced enteral nutrition support on the clinical outcome and nutritional status of patients with acute stress. Methods From December 2014 to August 2015, 120 patients with acute stress were enrolled in this study in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. The patients were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group, 60 cases in each group. Besides of medical treatment, the control group received routine enteral nutrition, while the experimental group received immune-enhanced nutrition for 8 days. The main parameters related to nutritional status, immune function, blood glucose, infection control of patients were collected. Results No significance of parameters listed above were observed between patients in the two groups at baseline. After intervention, the levels of prealbumin and lymphocyte counts in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group [(162.5±29.7) mg/L and (136.6±15.1) mg/L, (1.86±0.9) ×109/L and (1.45±0.710) ×109/L, P=0.021 and P=0.012]. The levels of C-reactive protein in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group [ (47.2±22.1) mg/L and (82.6±13.4) mg/L, P=0.043]. Moreover, the level of blood glucose in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group [(5.4±1.7) mmol/L and (6.6±3.5) mmol/L, P=0.009]. The patients in the experimental group had better intestinal tolerance (8.3% vs 25%, P=0.014) but lower mortality (6.7% vs 20%, P=0.032) than those in the control group. Conclusions Immune-enhanced enteral nutrition can reduce level of blood glucose and alleviate inflammatory responses of patients with acute stress, thus improving intestinal tolerance, and reducing mortality. Key words: Immune-enhanced enteral nutrition; Acute stress; Inflammation