Abstract
Recent advances of nutritional care in pediatrics has led to the establishment of methods for nutritional assessment. Plasma rapid turnover proteins; such as prealbumin (PA), retinol binding protein (RBP) and transferrin (Tf) have been proved to be useful as a sensitive indicator for evaluating protein-calorie malnutvition. These plasma proteins of 87 healthy infants and 76 surgical patients (2mo. acd 2y.) were measured and compared with their anthropometric measurements; height/age and weight/height (W/H). Normal values for PA, RBP and Tf were 19.3±3.2, 3.2±0.6 and 338±74 mg/dl respectively. Of 66 preoperative infants, 27 cases with wasting (W/H < 90%) showed significantly low values of these plasma proteins. The usefullness of PA and RBP was demonstrated for assessing the nutritional state and postoperative protein metabolism in surgical infants.
