Clinical Research Directory

Assessment of Nutritional Status in Celiac Disease Using Muscle Ultrasound in Pediatric Patients.

The aim is to explain that celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune, familial disease that develops in genetically predisposed individuals as a result of sensitivity to gluten found in grains and grain products, causing characteristic lesions and malabsorption in the small intestine, and showing clinical improvement with a gluten-free diet. Beyond the gastrointestinal system, the disease affects skeletal muscle health due to malabsorption and malnutrition. Sarcopenia, particularly seen in elderly patients due to decreased muscle mass and strength, can also occur in celiac patients, especially at an early age, due to chronic inflammation, protein malabsorption, and reduced nutrient intake. Therefore, the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) recommends regular evaluation of celiac patients in terms of growth, nutritional status, and muscle health. However, gold standard diagnostic methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are insufficient in clinical practice due to high cost, limited accessibility, portability, and radiation exposure, necessitating alternative methods. Ultrasonography has emerged as a promising method for screening and diagnosing sarcopenia in celiac patients. Because non-invasive, inexpensive, and widely available ultrasonography can increase awareness of sarcopenia, enable early nutritional intervention, and improve clinical and laboratory results in celiac disease. The aim of this study is to investigate the evaluation of nutritional status by measuring muscle mass using routine ultrasonography performed on pediatric patients diagnosed with celiac disease in the Pediatric Gastroenterology units of Balıkesir Atatürk City Hospital and Hitit University. Thus, the aim is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in the evaluation of sarcopenia in celiac patients.

Validity of the PortionSize App to Measure Children's Food Intake

The purpose of this study is to assess the validity of the PortionSize™ app to quantify children's own dietary intake and children's intake by parents or caregivers.

Food Typologies and Multidimensional Phenotyping of Elderly in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Part'AGE)

To better understand how diet influences health during aging, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) is working with the Gérontopôle Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on a project called Part'AGE. Part'AGE is a participatory research project where researchers want to recruit 1,000 people aged between 55 and 75 years, men and women, living in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in urban or rural areas. The goal is to study eating habits and state of health. To do this, researchers will examine many factors that can influence them, such as physical activity, overall health, consumption patterns or territories. Researchers will collect detailed information to classify participants into different groups (food typologies) based on their eating habits and state of health. With this distribution, the goal is to be able to give each group personalized nutritional advice to age in better health. To participate in the study, the participants will need to collect a few drops of blood from the end of the finger, a urine sample, and do some tests (mobility, oral health). It will also be necessary to fill out questionnaires on eating habits, physical activity, and other aspects that may influence health. The benefices for to participants will be to contribute to nutrition research and to receive personalized feedback and advices on eating habits.

Nutrition to Support Postoperative Recovery

Older surgical patients commonly have malnutrition, and there is evidence these patients have increased risk for poor physical and brain recovery after surgery and anesthesia. There are scientific-based recommendations to provide nutritional supplements to support recovery. However, to date these recommendations do not address a broad group of nutrients likely to reverse common deficiencies. Team members have created a palatable, broad-spectrum and stable nutritional shake that we will give to patients after surgery. We propose to test the nutritional shake in frail older surgical patients at Dartmouth Health to determine if a nutrition shake provided after surgery improves recovery of physical function and cognitive abilities. Half the patients will receive the shake and the other will receive the standard of care postoperative nutritional instructions after surgery. We will collect information regarding physical function and cognitive abilities of all the patients while in the hospital and 90 days after surgery. We will use this data to apply for funding for a powered randomized trial to determine the role of nutrition in optimizing physical and cognitive recovery from surgery in older patients.