Nutrition research of whey protein preparations for the treatment of severe liver damage in children

Abstract

Objective To explore the nutritional therapy effect and safety of administering whey protein supplement orally for children with severe hepatic impairment. Methods There were 50 patients with pathologic diagnosis of severe hepatic impairment.By application of the prospective randomized controlled study, the patients were randomly assigned into 2 groups (each 25 cases). After signing of ethics and patient' consent, the control group was given pure milk and food; in contrast, the experimental group was given whey protein powder and food.Two groups received the same amount of total calorie.All patients were observed at the day before treatment and after 4 weeks after treatment, and their tolerance, nutritional status, body mass index, and index for liver cell damage were compared.All the data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 software. Results During the experiment period, 2 subjects (8.6%) in the experimental group and 1 subject (4.8%) in the control group had slight vomiting and abdominal distension.The albumin [(35.6±4.1) g/L vs (30.2±3.6) g/L, P<0.05]and prealbumin [(169.7±40.9) g/L vs (103.3±54.8) g/L, P<0.05]in experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group at the beginning of the second week, and the condition continues after 4 weeks (P<0.05). Total protein showed similar difference after week 3[(67.8±6.5) g/L vs(59.1±6.6) g/L, P<0.05]. There were significant differences in body mass change between 2 groups [(0.20±0.04) kg vs(-0.80±0.05) kg, P<0.05]. The alanine aminotransferase[(72.2±30.8) U/L vs(88.8±33.5) U/L, P<0.05]and aspartate aminotransferase)[(60.6±20.4) U/L vs(70.8±27.3) U/L, P<0.05]both declined in the 2 groups, although no statistical differences were found between the 2 groups.The experiment group showed an ob-vious reduction in a given time.There were no statistical differences found in hemoglobin between the 2 groups. Conclusions Whey protein would be a safe and efficient protein supplement, which contributes to the improvement of protein nutritional status and hepatic function in children with hepatic impairment Key words: Whey protein; Liver function damage; Hypoalbuminemia; Nutritional support; Child