在懷孕末期，胎兒要經過一個快速的成長及儲存體內的蛋白質和其他營養的過程。但早產兒無法儲存這些營養，所以出生後在無法經腸胃道進食的情況下，就需要早期補充這些營養劑。而這研究的目標是要探討早產兒在禁食時第一天注射葡萄糖及第三天注射葡萄糖加電解質時血漿內氨基酸的變化。結果顯示氨基酸內有以下essentialamino acids : lysine and arginine、conditionally essential amino acids : cysteine, and nonessentialamino acids : proline、alanine and glutamine 偏低。同時non-essential aminoacids: glutamic acid.則顯示增加。因此早產兒在無法經腸胃道進食時早期氨基酸的補充是必要的。

During the third trimester of pregnancy, the fetus undergoes rapid growth and accumulatesbody nutrients. But premature newborns are unable to store nutrients, and therefore earlynutritional supplements are required especially if neonates cannot tolerate enteral feeding. Theobjective of this study was to analyze changes in plasma free amino acid levels on the first and thirddays of life, when the premature babies were on NPO and received intravenous glucose water onday 1 and a glucose-electrolyte infusion on day 3. Totally, there were 14 premature infants whosebaseline characteristics (mean ± 1 SD) were a gestational age of 30 ± 3.2 weeks, birth bodyweightof 1.1 ± 0.3 kg, birth body height of 36.5 ± 3.1 cm, birth head circumference of 26.3 ± 2.6 cm, andApgar scores of 4.9 ± 1.9 at 1 min and 7.4 ± 1.3 at 5 min. A Beckman 6300 amino acid analyzer wasused to analyze plasma amino acid levels. Mann-Whitney U statistical analysis was used for dataanalysis. Results in these premature infants showed significant decreases in plasma levels of theessential amino acids, lysine and arginine, of the conditionally essential amino acid, cysteine, andof the non-essential amino acids, proline, alanine, and glutamine. In contrast, a significant increasein glutamic acid was noted. Therefore, early parenteral supplementation of amino acids is requiredin premature infants who cannot tolerate enteral feeding.