%0 Journal Article %T Hospital malnutrition and inflammatory response in critically ill children and adolescents admitted to a tertiary intensive care unit %A Delgado %A Artur F. %A Okay %A Thelma S. %A Leone %A Claudio %A Nichols %A Buford %A Del Negro %A Gilda Maria %A Vaz %A Fl¨˘vio Adolfo Costa %J Clinics %D 2008 %I Faculdade de Medicina / USP %R 10.1590/S1807-59322008000300012 %X critical illness has a major impact on the nutritional status of both children and adults. a retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of hospital malnutrition at a pediatric tertiary intensive care unit (picu). serum concentrations of il-6 in subgroups of well-nourished and malnourished patients were also evaluated in an attempt to identify those with a potential nutritional risk. methods: a total of 1077 patients were enrolled. nutritional status was evaluated by z-score (weight for age). we compared mortality, sepsis incidence, and length of hospital stay for nourished and malnourished patients. we had a subgroup of 15 patients with severe malnutrition (mn) and another with 14 well-nourished patients (wn). cytokine il-6 determinations were performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. results: 53% of patients were classified with moderate or severe malnutrition. similar amounts of c- reactive protein (crp) were observed in wn and mn patients. both groups were able to increase il-6 concentrations in response to inflammatory systemic response and the levels followed a similar evolution during the study. however, the mean values of serum il-6 were significantly different between wn and mn patients across time, throughout the study (p = 0.043). discussion: a considerable proportion of malnourished patients need specialized nutritional therapy during an intensive care unit (icu) stay. malnutrition in children remains largely unrecognized by healthcare workers on admission. conclusions: the incidence of malnutrition was very high. malnourished patients maintain the capacity to release inflammatory markers such as crp and il-6, which can be considered favorable for combating infections on the other hand, this capacity might also have a significant impact on nutritional status during hospitalization. %K nutritional status %K critical care %K hospitalization %K interleukins %K sepsis. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1807-59322008000300012&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en