Trial reportPloS one2018
Amino-acid-enriched cereals ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) are as effective as milk-based RUTF in recovering essential amino acid during the treatment of severe acute malnutrition in children: An individually randomized control trial in Malawi.
Trial report in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) Containing Low or No Dairy Compared to Standard RUTF for Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Pooled it
- Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) for home-based nutritional rehabilitation of severe acute malnutrition in children from six months to five years of age.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Effects of Formula-100 therapeutic milk andNarra J · 2024Trial
- A Global Scoping Review on Alternative Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Article
- Gut microbiota and childhood malnutrition: Understanding the link and exploring therapeutic interventions.Engineering in life sciences · 2024Review
- Review
- Severe Acute Malnutrition: The Potential of Non-Peanut, Non-Milk Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods.Current nutrition reports · 2023Review
- Reply to I Potani et al.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Review Nutritional interventions during adolescence and their possible effects.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2022Review
- Amino acid-enriched plant-based RUTF treatment was not inferior to peanut-milk RUTF treatment in restoring plasma amino acid levels among patients with oedematous or non-oedematous malnutrition.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Effectiveness of interventions to manage acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundReady-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) is used to treat children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Standard RUTF uses milk as the primary protein source, which makes the product expensive, and given the high worldwide SAM burden, having a less expensive effective alternative is a public health priority.
objectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate whether newly developed amino acid-enriched milk-free RUTF (FSMS-RUTF) or amino acid-enriched low-milk RUTF (MSMS-RUTF) treatment could replenish plasma amino acids to levels comparable to those following standard peanut-milk RUTF (PM-RUTF) treatment and to improve understanding of the effects of treatment on anthropometric measurements. A secondary analysis was performed to test the noninferiority hypothesis of plasma essential amino acid (EAA) levels.
methodsPlasma EAA levels were measured in a nonblinded, 3-arm, parallel-group simple randomized controlled trial conducted in Malawi to examine the efficacy of FSMS-RUTF, MSMS-RUTF and PM-RUTF in the treatment of SAM in 2 groups of children aged 6-23 and 24-59 months (mo). Sample size calculations were performed based on the previous our study. A noninferiority margin was set at -25% of the PM-RUTF arm at discharge.
resultsThe relative values of the differences (95% CI) in plasma EAA levels between PM-RUTF treatment and FSMS-RUTF and MSMS-RUTF treatments at discharge were -7.9% (-18.6, 2.8) and 9.8% (0.2, 19.5), respectively, in children aged 6-23 mo, while in those aged 24-59 mo, the difference values were 17.8% (1.6, 34.1) and 13.6% (-2.8, 29.9), respectively.
conclusionAt discharge, the plasma EAA concentrations in 6-59-mo-old SAM children treated with FSMS-RUTF and MSMS-RUTF were not less than those of children treated with PM-RUTF. These findings indicate that treatment with either of the 3 RUTFs was associated with adequate protein synthesis and that all the formulations provided sufficient functional metabolites of plasma amino acids to support nutritional recovery from SAM.
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