zahra irannejad niri

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are prone to weakening and underweight. 

We aimed to evaluate the effect of high-density formula on weight gain and gastrointestinal intolerance in CHD children following heart surgery.

All randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on weight gain following heart surgery in CHD children were systematically searched on Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases by related keywords from 1990/01/01:2022/12/30. Papers in languages other than English were excluded. Among 11 trials that evaluated the effect of a high-density formula on weight, 6 studies were excluded due to their study samples (older than 2 years) and using macronutrients to enrich the formula.

Finally, 5 eligible trials with a total of 278 participants were included in this systematic review. The follow-up duration ranged from 5 to 30 days. Among 5 included studies, 4 indicated that feeding with high-density or concentrated formula can improve weight gain in children with CHD compared to the standard formula. Diarrhea was the most common gastrointestinal complication associated with the high-density formula, although its frequency was low.

Feeding with a high-density formula or concentrated standard formula could be an inexpensive and practical way to fulfill the nutritional requirements of CHD children following surgery, which can lead to more weight gain without any significant gastrointestinal side effects.

Cataract is a chronic disorder that is related to antioxidant–oxidant imbalance situation. We aimed to investigate the association between food diversity and serum antioxidant and oxidant indices in cataract patients compared to healthy subjects.

In this case–control study, ninety volunteers (aged > 50 years) were divided into the cataract (n = 45) and healthy control (n = 45) groups. Anthropometric variables, physical activity and stress levels, food diversity score, serum total oxidant capacity (TOC), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) measurements were done for all participants.

Serum TAC, even after adjustment for stress level, was significantly higher in healthy people compared to cataract patients (P < 0.001). In addition, serum TOC was significantly lower in healthy controls compared to cataract patients (P < 0.002). In healthy group, there was a weak significant positive association between serum TAC and meats group diversity (r = 0.149, P = 0.047). In addition, there was a moderate negative association between meats group diversity and TOC in the healthy controls (r = −0.712, P = 0.041). In the cataract group, there was a significant negative association between serum TOC and diversity score of fruits (r = −0.811, P = 0.017) and meats group (r = −0.926, P = 0.046) as well as total score of food diversity (r = −0.466, P = 0.003).

It seems that increase in total dietary diversity and food groups’ diversity can have a beneficial effect on oxidant situation among cataract patients.