Influence of nutrient intake on colonic function and stool composition in enterally fed cystic fibrosis patients

Abstract

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients need to consume a high energy diet to satisfy their increased metabolic demands and those with long term inadequate energy intakes are given overnight enteral feeds to prevent growth retardation. These feeds and this type of diet are low in dietary fibre and those patients with the lowest fibre intakes are reported to have the most frequent abdominal symptoms The aim of this study was to determine whether increasing dietary fibre intake could alter colonic function and stool output therefore reduce the incidence of abdominal symptoms for this CF group. If a causal relationship was identified this would have clinical implications for the dietetic management of enterally fed CF patients. The study was designed as two phases. The first phase assessed habitual stool losses and frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms in the enterally fed CF group compared with healthy individuals, and the second phase assessed the difference in stool losses and symptoms when the CF group were given either a fibre supplemented feed or a placebo feed. The enterally fed CF group had more frequent symptoms and larger stool losses than the healthy group but these were unrelated to their low dietary fibre intake. The fibre supplemented feed did not increase stool losses or reduce the incidence of symptoms compared with the placebo feed. As no causal relationship was identified, the fibre supplemented feed could not be recommended in dietetic management of symptoms for these patients.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata