The effect of early enteral nutrition support on immunological function in patients with acute stroke

objective To discuss the effect of early enteral nutrition support on immunological function in patients with acute stroke.Methods Forty-nine stroke patients with dysphagia were randomly allocated into study group(n=24) and control group (n=25).They were received enteral nutrition via nasogassric tube and ordinary nasal feeding of liguid diet,respectively within 72 hours after admission.The levels of total lymphocyte count(TLC),immune globulin A(IgA),immune globulin G(IgG),immune globulin M(IgM),complement 3(C3),and complement 4(C4) in both groups were detected on day 1,7 and 21 respectively after admission.The changes of nutritional index and the incidence of infective complications were observed.(Results) The levels of TLC[(2.1±0.4)×10~9/L],IgA[(2.7±0.5)g/L],IgG[(11.1±2.2)g/L],IgM[(1.7±0.7)g/L],and C3[(1.2±0.2)g/L] in the study group were significantly higher than the levels of TLC(1.7±0.4×10~9/L,P0.05),IgA[(2.0±0.4)g/L,P0.01],IgG[(8.9±2.5)g/L,P0.01],IgM[(1.3±0.6)g/L,P0.05],and C3([(1.0±0.3)g/L),P0.01] in the control group after 21 days.The incidence of infective complications in the study group(29.1%) was significantly lower than that in the control group(60.0%;P0.05).The(nutritive) index of the study group was also significantly better than that in the control group.Conclusion Early enteral nutrition support may improve the immunological function in patients with acute stroke,and decrease the incidence of infective complications.