Abstract:Objective To explore the effect of early enteral nutrition (EEN) intervention on nutrition and pulmonary function in the elderly pulmonary inflammatory disease patients with malnutrition. Methods A total of 96 elderly pulmonary inflammatory disease patients accompanied with malnutrition admitted in the Nutrition Department of our hospital from May 2017 to December 2018 were recruited in this study. They were randomly divided into control group and research group, with 48 cases in each group. The patients of the control group were only given routine dietary intervention, while those of the study group were given EEN on the basis of the control group. Nutritional status [total serum protein (TP), albumin (ALB), hemoglobin (Hb)], pulmonary function [forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and FEV1/FVC], immune function (percentages of CD3+ and CD4+ cells, CD4+/CD8+, and IgA, IgG and IgM levels) and inflammatory indices [interleukin 10 (IL-10), IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α)] were observed and compared between the 2 groups before and in 14 d after treatment. SPSS statistics 21.0 was used for data analysis. Independent sample t test was employed for comparison between groups. Results (1)Nutritional status. TP, Hb and ALB in control group were increased from (56.03±2.81), (28.53±2.85) and (109.74±10.97)g/L respectively before intervention, to (56.15±2.82), (28.92±2.89) and (123.86±12.39)g/L after intervention. For the research group, the indicators were increased from (56.17±2.82), (28.57±2.86) and (112.96±11.30)g/L respectively to (59.77±2.99), (32.47±3.25) and (131.07±13.11)g/L respectively. There was no significant differences in the levels between the 2 groups before intervention (P>0.05), and the levels were significantly higher in the research group than the control group after intervention (P<0.05). (2)Pulmonary function. FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC changed from (1.40±0.14)L, (2.33±0.42)L and (62.11±6.26)% before intervention to (1.63±0.18)L, (2.51±0.41)L and (66.93±6.70)% after intervention in the control group. In the research group, FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC were increased from (1.42±0.12)L, (2.41±0.37)L and (62.48±6.31)% to (1.93±0.27)L, (2.79±0.36)L and (72.54±7.23)% respectively. No significant differences was seen in the levels of FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC between the 2 groups before intervention (P>0.05), and the levels in the research group were significantly higher than those in the control group after intervention (P<0.05). (3)Immune and inflammatory indices. Before intervention, there were no significant differences in immune function related indices and inflammatory indices between the 2 groups (P>0.05). After intervention, the level of IL-10 was significantly increased, while those of IL-6 and TNF-α were obviously decreased in the research group when compared with the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion EEN intervention effectively improves the nutritional status in the elderly patients with pulmonary inflammatory diseases, improves the immunity and attenuates their inflammatory responses, and improves the cardiopulmonary function. It is worthy of clinical promotion.