Measurement Of Prealbumin In Hospitalized Children And The Value Of Prealbumin In Nutritional Risk Screening For Hospitalized Children

【Aims】Comparing the levels of prealbumin between the low nutritional risk group and the high nutritional risk group, analyzing the factors which can influence the prealbumin, discussing the value of prealbumin in screening nutritional risk for hospitalized children.【Methods】In this study, 867 hospitalized children were recuited from March 2013 to April 2014 in The First Affiliated Hosptial of Fujian Medical University.All the children were assessed the risk of malnutrition by STAMP and examined the prealbumin within 24 hours. According to the STAMP score, children were divided into the low nutritional risk group(LNR, STAMP score<4) and the high nutritional risk group(HNR, STAMP score≥4). Covariance analysis was used to compare the prealbumin concentration between the two groups and then Logistic regression analysis was use to understand the major influencing factors of prealbumin for hospitalized children. Use the SPSS17.0 for statistic analysis.【Results】There were 463 children(53.4%) in the high nutritional risk group with STAMP score≥4. Compare with the INR children, the HNR children had lower prealbumin(144.7±50.6mg/L VS 173.6±71.3mg/L), there were significant difference between the two groups(P=0.000). Covariance analysis showed that under the control of age, course of disease, breastfeeding time, white blood cell(WBC), albumin(ALB), glutamic-oxalacetic transaminease(ALT), C-reactive protein(CRP), the HNR children still had lower prealbumin than LNR children significantly(139.8±2.5(134.9~144.8), 157.9±3.0(151.9~163.8)), P=0.000. Univariate analysis show that the children with lower prealbumin were associated with the course of disease(t=5.651, p=0.000), the duration of fever(t=-4.610, P=0.000), nertrophils percentage(t=-3.881, P=0.000), prealbumin(t=4.242, P=0.000), AST(t=-2.235, P=0.026), CRP(t=-5.183, P=0.000), diet before ill(χ2=15.889, P=0.000), diet after ill(χ2=6.705, P=0.035), the severity of the disease(χ2=4.903, P=0.027), residence(χ2=15.151, P=0.000)and STAMP score(χ2=2.864, P=0.053). Logistic regression analysis showed: the duration of fever(OR=1.046, 95%CI: 1.007~1.086, P=0.020), AST(OR=1.006, 95%CI: 1.001~1.011, P=0.024),CRP(OR=1.011, 95%CI: 1.005~1.017, P=0.000), STAMP score(OR=1.768, 95%CI: 1.212~2.579, P=0.003) were the risk factors for low prealbumin.【Conclusions】Prealbumin can indicate the person who are at risk of high nutritional. But prealbumin can be affected by age, liver function, infection and so on. So, it is helpful for us to combine the screening nutritional risk tools with the prealbumin for hospitalized children.