Comparison of estimated energy requirements in severely burned patients with measurements by using indirect calorimetry.

Severe burn injuries give rise to an extreme state of physiological stress. No other trauma results in such an accelerated rate of tissue catabolism, loss of lean body mass, and depletion of energy and protein reserves. A heightened attention to energy needs is essential, and the significance of adequate nutritional support in the complex management of patients with major burns is very important. The purpose of this study is to compare the results obtained by three of the most popular methods of estimating energy requirements in severely burned adult patients with the measurements of resting energy (REE) expenditure by indirect calorimetry (IC). A prospective study was carried out of 20 patients (male/female ratio, 17/3; mean age, 37.83 ± 10.86 yr), without accompanying morbidities, with burn injuries covering a mean body surface area of 34.27 ± 11.55% and a mean abbreviated burn severity index of 7.44 ± 1.58. During the first 30 days after trauma, the energy requirements were estimated using the Curreri, Long, and Toronto formulas. Twice weekly measurements of REE by IC were obtained. It was found that the Curreri and Long formulas overestimated the energy requirements in severely burned patients, as found by other investigators. However, no significant difference was found between the daily energy requirements calculated by the Toronto formula and the measured REE values by IC. It is concluded that the Toronto formula can be used as an alternative method for estimating the energy requirements of patients with major burns in cases where IC is not available or not applicable.

UV-Vis spectroscopic and chemometric study on the aggregation of ionic dyes in water.

The monomer-dimer equilibrium in several ionic dyes (Methylene Blue, Acridine Orange, Nile Blue A, Neutral Red, Rhodamine 6G and Safranine O) has been investigated by means of UV-Vis spectroscopy. The data have been processed by a recently developed method for quantitative analysis of undefined mixtures, based on simultaneous resolution of the overlapping bands in the whole set of absorption spectra. In the cases of Acridine Orange a second chemometric approach has been used as a reference. It is based on a decomposition of the recorded spectra into a product of target and projection matrices using non iterative partial least squares (NIPALS). The matrices are then rotated to give the correct concentrations, spectral profiles of the components and the equilibrium constant. The dimeric constants determined by the two methods were in excellent agreement, evidencing the accuracy of the analysis. From the calculated dimeric constant and monomer and dimer spectra, the structures of the dimeric forms of the studied dyes are estimated.