A randomized controlled pilot study to evaluate the effect of an enteral formulation designed to improve gastrointestinal tolerance in the critically ill patient—the SPIRIT trial

Table 7 Baseline characteristics from post-hoc analysis

	Patients with diarrhea (n = 60)		Patients without diarrhea (n = 30)		p value
Receiving Peptamen® AF	n = 60	29 (48%)	n = 30	17 (57%)	0.51
Age, years	n = 60	63.7 (51.0–74.3)	n = 30	61.7 (50.5–72.8)	0.71
Sex, male	n = 60	41 (68%)	n = 30	20 (67%)	1.00
Body mass index, kg/m²	n = 54	28.1 (23.6–33.8)	n = 28	28.2 (23.9–32.6)	0.83
APACHE II score	n = 57	30.0 (25.0–36.0)	n = 29	26.0 (20.0–30.0)	0.005
SAPS II score	n = 60	66.0 (53.5–76.8)	n = 30	52.0 (43.8–63.8)	0.003
Diabetes	n = 60	12 (20%)	n = 30	9 (30%)	0.30
Residual gastric volume at study inclusion, ml	n = 58	41.0 (20.0–112.5)	n = 27	30.0 (10.0–80.0)	0.19
Presence of diarrhea at study inclusion	n = 60	8 (13%)	n = 30	1 (3%)	0.26
Blood glucose at study inclusion, mmol/l	n = 60	8.2 (7.0–9.4)	n = 30	8.0 (6.6–8.9)	0.43

Continuous variables are presented as median (interquartile range) and categorical variables as number of patients (%)
APACHE Acute Physiology and Health Evaluation, SAPS Simplified Acute Physiology Score

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