Original Article
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2006) 60, 197–202. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602288; published online 9 November 2005
Relationship between birth weight and urea kinetics in children
Guarantors: A Badaloo and T Forrester.
Contributors: TEF had the idea for this investigation. AAJ, TEF, AVB and MB directed the study design. All authors were involved in conducting the studies, data analysis and writing the report.
A V Badaloo1, M Reid1, M Boyne1, A A Jackson2 and T Forrester1
- 1Tropical Medicine Research Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica
- 2Institute of Human Nutrition, University Southampton, Southampton, UK
Correspondence: Professor T Forrester, Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, Tropical Medicine Research Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica W.I. E-mail: terrence.forrester@uwimona.edu.jm
Received 16 August 2004; Revised 11 May 2005; Accepted 29 June 2005; Published online 9 November 2005.
Abstract
Objective:
To explore the effect of birth weight on urea kinetics in young healthy children.
Design:
Observational study.
Setting:
Tertiary center for treatment of malnutrition.
Subjects:
A total of 17 male children, 6–24 months old, who had recovered from malnutrition.
Interventions:
Urea kinetics were measured using stable isotope methodology with [15N15N]-urea over 36 h.
Results:
Birth weight was negatively related to urea hydrolysis after controlling for the intake of protein (adjusted R 2=0.91, P=0.001) and separately for energy intake (adjusted R 2=0.95, P=0.001), age (adjusted R 2=0.90, P=0.001) and rate of weight gain (adjusted R 2=0.91, P=0.001). There was a tendency for higher urea production in the children with lower birth weight after controlling for nitrogen intake (adjusted R 2=0.93, P=0.099), and separately for age (adjusted R 2=0.94, P=0.06) and rate of weight gain (adjusted (R 2=0.92, P=0.096). Urea excretion was not significantly related to birth weight.
Conclusions:
The salvaging of urea nitrogen following urea hydrolysis contributed significantly more to the nitrogen economy in children with lower birth weight compared to those with higher birth weight. This may be as a result of reductive adaptation in the children with lower birth weight as a consequence of inappropriate prenatal nutrition and growth.
Keywords:
urea salvage, children, birth weight, nitrogen
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