Plasma mineral concentrations in preterm infants fed a nutrient-enriched formula after hospital discharge.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Magnesium and Calcium in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To determine whether prolonged feeding of preterm infant formula to preterm infants can accelerate recovery to normal plasma zinc levels without affecting plasma mineral homeostasis.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers and adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Magnesium group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Part of concurrent prospective feeding trials in a university hospital-based population.

Preterm infants (n = 33; birth weight, 1037 +/- 157 gm) were fed a preterm infant formula with higher concentrations of zinc, copper, calcium, magnesium, and potassium until 2 months past expected term, then a term infant formula.

Term infants (n = 38; birth weight, 3318 +/- 401 gm) fed this term infant formula from birth were a reference group for comparison with study infants and with published values.

Plasma mineral levels were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Calcium, Copper, Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy, Food, Fortified, Hospitals, University, Infant Food and Infant, Premature.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Magnesium and Calcium.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 1 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1995 (The Journal of pediatrics), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.