Subcutaneous ghrelin enhances acute food intake in malnourished patients who receive maintenance peritoneal dialysis: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Ghrelin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of this study was to determine whether subcutaneous administration of ghrelin, an appetite-stimulating gut hormone, could enhance food intake in patients who are receiving maintenance peritoneal dialysis and have evidence of malnutrition.

Why It Was Studied

The principal outcome measure was energy intake during a measured study meal.

Secondary outcome measures were BP and heart rate and 3-d food intake after intervention.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Ghrelin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Ghrelin.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Ghrelin group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Ghrelin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

The principal outcome measure was energy intake during a measured study meal.

Secondary outcome measures were BP and heart rate and 3-d food intake after intervention.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Appetite Stimulants, Eating, Ghrelin, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Malnutrition, Peptide Hormones and Peritoneal Dialysis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Ghrelin.

The publication is from 2005 (Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.