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Biomedical subjects

V Utermohlen

Publications and source records attributed to V Utermohlen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Healthy eating in Ukraine: attitudes, barriers and information sources.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the major perceived influences on food choice, to examine the use of and trust in information sources concerning healthy eating, and to assess attitudes towards and barriers to adopting healthy eating practices in a post-USSR country (Ukraine). DESIGN: A survey of an urban adult population. The questions were adopted from the Pan-European Union (EU) Survey of Consumer Attitudes to Food, Nutrition and Health (1995-1996). SETTING: Lviv city, Ukraine. SUBJECTS: The survey included 296 adults (84 males, 212 females) aged 18-55 years; they were primarily college students and subjects with tertiary education--the groups most likely to be both interested in healthy eating and affected by current socioeconomic downturns. RESULTS: The major factors in food choice were: 'quality/freshness' (cited by 80%), 'price' (58%) and 'taste' (47%); only 34% cited 'trying to eat healthily'. More older people cited 'price' than 'quality/freshness', and men were more likely than women to cite 'taste'. Sources of healthy eating information included: 'relatives/friends' (cited by 65%, trusted by 85%) and health professionals (trusted by 92%, but used by only 35%); while advertising was the least trusted source (cited by 28%). Fifty-three per cent of respondents considered their diet to be healthy enough without further changes; 50% thought of the nutritional aspects of the food they ate; fewer women than men considered their diet healthy, and more women than men thought about nutrition. Barriers to healthy eating included: 'cost' (cited by 65%), 'lack of time' (55%), 'self-control' (54%), 'selection influences' (41%), 'lack of knowledge' (32%), 'unpleasant foods' and 'resistance to change' (both 30%). CONCLUSIONS: Strategies to encourage healthy eating in this population should involve word-of-mouth nutrition education concerning low-cost healthy alternatives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

A multivariate analysis of psychological factors related to body mass index and eating preoccupation in female college students.

Using a composite questionnaire, we measured the degree to which preoccupation with eating and body mass index (BMI) are related to a series of psychological measures in a sample of female college students. Eating preoccupation was measured using a set of questions designed to be free of affective content. Thirty volunteers filled out the questionnaire; their height and weight were measured under standard conditions. Correlations showed that BMI was positively related to the variables Depression and Emotional Response to Environmental Stimuli, while Eating Preoccupation was most closely related to Anxiety. Principal components analysis revealed two factors, one containing measures of positive emotionality, and one containing Eating Preoccupation and measures of negative emotionality, with BMI loaded on both components. These factors reflect the relationship of BMI to measures of both positive and negative emotionality. Positive emotionality may be a reflection of activation of a neurobehavioral system, the behavioral facilitation system, while negative emotionality may be a reflection of activation of the behavioral inhibition system. The overweight women in this study appeared to have high levels of activation of one or both systems, while the underweight women appeared to have low activation of both systems. Approaches to the study of obesity in women should take into account the fact that positive emotionality, as well as negative emotions such as depression and anxiety, may be related to BMI, and that eating preoccupation appears to be a subset of overall anxiety.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Nutritional support for the patient with renal failure.

Renal failure presents patients and caregivers alike with numerous dilemmas in nutritional management. Too much protein, phosphate, or electrolytes, and the patient's renal failure becomes more symptomatic; too little of these nutrients and the patient is at great risk of developing fluid and electrolyte imbalances and of becoming protein-calorie malnourished. Dietary manipulation and often vigorous nutritional intervention (i.e., parenteral nutrition) are a must for these patients' survival. The nurse needs to understand the rationales behind nutritional care choices made by the physician and dietitian, and to be able to convey these rationales to the patient. The nurse also needs to be aware that the patient will use food, eating, and diet as a focus for acting out anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and anger. The nurse should also realize that these emotions are due, in part, to the metabolic derangements induced by the renal disease itself.

Critical Illness↗
PubMed1990

Impact of asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection on size at birth and gestational duration.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common viral agent causing congenital infection in humans, affecting 0.2 to 2.4% of all live births. Symptomatic congenital CMV infection has previously been shown to cause low birth weight and prematurity. Whether or not asymptomatic congenital CMV infection, which represents the majority of cases (90 to 95%), affects intrauterine growth or gestational duration is unknown. Using a population of 146 infants with asymptomatic congenital CMV infection and 1419 controls from two socioeconomically diverse populations (biracial low income and white mid- to upper income), determinants of body size (birth weight and crown-heel length) were investigated using multiple regression techniques. We found that congenital infection following the transmission of maternal primary and "unknown" CMV infection resulted in a significant mean birth weight deficit of 163 g (P less than 0.04) for the low income term infants (blacks and whites), but not in the mid- to upper income white infants. Newborns with congenital infection following the transmission of maternal reactivated (recurrent) CMV infection were significantly shorter by a mean of 1 cm (P less than 0.03) than controls, a finding that was consistent regardless of socioeconomic status or race.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1987

Nutritional support of bone marrow transplant recipients: a prospective, randomized clinical trial comparing total parenteral nutrition to an enteral feeding program.

Although standard supportive care for bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients includes total parenteral nutrition (TPN), it has not been shown that this is the most appropriate method of nutritional support. To determine whether current BMT recipients require TPN during the early recovery period, we conducted a prospective, randomized clinical trial comparing TPN and an individualized enteral feeding program (counseling, high protein snacks and/or tube feeding). Nutritional assessment included measurement of serum proteins, anthropometry, and body composition analysis. For the latter, total body water and extracellular fluid were measured by standard radioisotope dilution techniques and used to quantitate body cell mass and body fat plus extracellular solids (FAT + ECS). In 27 TPN patients, body composition 28 days after BMT, expressed as a percentage of baseline, was body cell mass, 100%, extracellular fluid, 108%, FAT + ECS, 108%, and in 30 enteral feeding program patients, was body cell mass, 93%, extracellular fluid, 104%, and FAT + ECS, 94%. Only the difference in FAT + ECS was statistically significant (p less than 0.01). Compared to the enteral feeding program, TPN was associated with more days of diuretic use, more frequent hyperglycemia, and more frequent catheter removal (prompted by catheter-related complications), but less frequent hypomagnesemia. There were no significant differences in the rate of hematopoietic recovery, length of hospitalization, or survival, but nutrition-related costs were 2.3 times greater in the TPN group. We conclude that TPN is not clearly superior to individualized enteral feeding and recommend that TPN be reserved for BMT patients who demonstrate intolerance to enteral feeding.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Nutritional assessment by isotope dilution analysis of body composition.

The three components of body mass, body cell mass (BCM), extracellular fluid (ECF), and fat + extracellular solids (ECS: bone, tendon, etc) can be quantified using established isotope dilution techniques. With these techniques, total body water (TBW) and ECF are measured using 3H2O and 82Bromine, respectively, as tracers. BCM is calculated from intracellular fluid (ICF) where ICF = TBW - ECF. Fat + ECS is estimated as: body weight - (BCM + ECF). TBW and ECF can be determined by either of two calculation methods, one requiring several timed plasma samples (extrapolation method) and one requiring a single plasma sample and a 4-h urine collection (urine-corrected method). The comparability of the two calculation methods was evaluated in 20 studies in 12 bone marrow transplant recipients. We found that for determination of TBW and ECF there was a very strong linear relationship (r2 greater than 0.98) between the calculation methods. Further comparisons (by t test, 2-sided) indicated that for the determination of ECF, the methods were not significantly (p greater than 0.90) different; however, TBW determined by the urine-corrected method was slightly (0.1 to 6%), but significantly (p less than 0.01) greater than that determined by the extrapolation method. Therefore, relative to the extrapolation method, the urine-corrected method "over-estimates" BCM and "under-estimates" fat + ECS since determination of these compartment sizes depends on measurement of TBW. We currently use serial isotope dilution studies to monitor the body composition changes of patients receiving therapeutic nutritional support.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1983

Isolation and assay of a human plasma factor affecting human thymus-derived lymphocytes.

An amino acid-containing factor has been isolated from a dialysate of defibrinated human plasma using Sephadex G-25 and Sephadex CM-25 column chromatography. This factor is capable of enhancing "avid" E-rosette formation by normal human lymphocytes, where avid E-rosettes are defined as lymphocytes binding 10 or more sheep red cells. This factor is effective at concentrations as low as 10(-12) g/ml. It resembles the porcine and murine "facteur thymique sérique" (e.g. J.-F. Bach, M. Dardenne, J.-M. Pleau, and J. Rosa, Nature (London) 266, 55, 1977) in its elution characteristics, its capacity to enhance avid E-rosette formation and, tentatively, its amino acid composition.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

The effect of a human plasma thymic factor on human peripheral blood mononuclear cell subpopulations.

Human plasma thymic factor in vitro (human "facteur thymique sérique," or FTS) (at concentrations between 0.25 and 0.25 X 10(5) pg/ml) significantly increased "avid" E-rosette formation by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). It also increased the percentage of OKT8+ cells but did not affect the percentages of OKT3+, OKT4+, OKT11+, OKIa1+, or OKM+ cells. In the low-density immature PBMC, FTS increased both total and avid E-rosette formation, while increasing the percentages of OKT3+ and OKT8+ cells and decreasing the percentage of OKT4+ cells. Theophylline decreased E-rosette formation and the percentages of OKT3+ and OKT4+ among PBMC, and increased the percentages of OKT3+ and OKT4+ among the low-density cells. Human FTS may be capable of inducing maturation of immature PBMC into E-rosette-forming OKT3+8+ cells, while increasing the percentage of mature cells which may be doubly labeled OKT4+8+. The function of such doubly labeled cells remains to be determined. Human FTS may act by increasing intracellular cAMP in immature cells, but probably has a different mode of action in mature cells.

Adult↗
PubMed1974

A depression of cell-mediated immunity to measles antigen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Using the direct migration inhibition test, response to measles antigen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was found to be decreased when compared with that of normal subjects. No alteration was observed in similar experiments using parainfluenza type 1 and rubella antigens. The specific decrease in measles antigen effect showed no obvious correlation with activity of SLE or with the presence of lymphocytotoxic antibodies. Whether the specificity of the decrease in reactivity is due to some particular relationship between the measles virus or antigen and SLE, or to the possibility that measles reactivity is a more sensitive indicator of a generalized defect of cell-mediated immunity, remains unclear.

Antibodies↗