Cardiac function and nutrition in patients with mitral valve disease

To examine the influence of cardiac function on the nutriture, operated cases of mitral valve disease were evaluated for preoperative cardiac function by morbid type and were examined for the influence of cardiac function on the pre- and post-operative nutriture. The findings revealed that the hypofunctional group showed no difference in visceral protein index from the normal group preoperatively, and showed significant decreases in % IBW, % TSF, and CHI, indexes of fat stores and skeletal muscle mass. The hypofunctional group also showed low value of PPD intracutaneous reaction, an index of the immunological status. The early postoperative nutriture of the hypofunctional group showed changes similar to those in the normal group and was less influenced by the preoperative cardiac function. These findings suggest that the cardiac function influences the body composition and immunological status and that somatometry and PPD intracutaneous reaction are useful for the nutritional assessment of heart diseases