Clinical Study Dietary Intake as a Link between Obesity, Systemic Inflammation, and the Assumption of Multiple Cardiovascular and Antidiabetic Drugs in Renal Transplant Recipients

Copyright © 2013 Bruna Guida et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We evaluated dietary intake and nutritional-inflammation status in ninety-six renal transplant recipients, 7.2 ± 5.0 years after transplantation. Patients were classified as normoweight (NW), overweight (OW), and obese (OB), if their body mass index was between 18.5 and 24.9, 25.0 and 29.9, and ≥30 kg/m2, respectively. Food composition tables were used to estimate nutrient intakes. The values obtained were compared with those recommended in current nutritional guidelines. 52 % of the patients were NW, 29% were OW, and 19 % were OB. Total energy, fat, and dietary n-6 PUFAs intake was higher in OB than in NW. IL-6 and hs-CRP were higher in OB than in NW. The prevalence of multidrug regimen was higher in OB. In all patients, total energy, protein, saturated fatty acids, and sodium intake were higher than guideline recommendations. On the contrary, the intake of unsaturated and n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and fiber was lower than recommended. In conclusion, the prevalence of obesity was high in our patients, and it was associated with inflammation and the assumption of multiple cardiovascular and antidiabetic drugs. Dietar