AIDS is one of the greatest human health problems of the modern contemporary world. Energy balance is utilised for monitoring nutritional needs of critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the components of the energy balance of HIV seropositive infants.

We followed up 13 infants (6 girls and 7 boys) aged between 1 and 6 months, born from HIV positive mothers. A complete nutritional evaluation was made at this time, when the diagnosis of AIDS was not feasible. Complete nutritional assessment was done since admission, including: clinical examination, anthropometric measurements, nitrogen and energy balances (food and fecal energy, resting energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry). After 2 to 6 months, when the firm diagnosis was made, a second complete evaluation was performed.

Two groups were compared: 5 infected and 8 non-infected infants.

Anthropometric measurements of the infected group were worse since the first evaluation. Nitrogen balance was similar in the two evaluations, both for intakes and fecal energy in infected and non-infected patients.

In the non-infected group resting energy expenditure (REE) (49 +/- 6kcal/kg/d) in the first evaluation was lower than the second (54 +/- 3kcl/kg/d). REE of the infected group were higher than the non-infected group: 1st evaluation: 66 +/- 17 vs 49 +/- 6; 2nd evaluation: 70 +/- 11 vs 54 +/- 3.

The higher REE of the infected group is likely to be the cause of the protein-energy malnutrition observed during the initial phase, when diagnosis of the disease was still uncertain.