Sodium restriction is important in the treatment of chronic kidney disease; however, it is sometimes difficult to achieve. Decreased taste sensitivity may be a factor influencing inadequate control of oral salt intake and subsequent high blood pressure. To measure this, the gustatory threshold (recognition and detection) for salty taste was determined in 29 patients with chronic kidney disease using a sodium-impregnated test strip and relevant factors determining taste sensitivity were analyzed. Compared with 11 healthy volunteers, recognition and detection thresholds were increased in the patients with chronic kidney disease. Oral sodium intake correlated positively but serum zinc correlated negatively with the recognition threshold. Patients with diabetic nephropathy had a higher detection threshold than non-diabetic patients. Both recognition and detection thresholds were increased in patients with diuretic administration. After 1 week of sodium restriction, the average recognition threshold decreased significantly. Our study verified that latent taste dysfunction and zinc deficiency are common in patients with chronic kidney disease. Further, the recognition threshold for salty taste improved even after a short period of salt restriction.

: Purpose : To investigate the utility of the Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ) in the nutritional evaluation of patients with cancer undergoing outpatient chemotherapy. Methods : We included 229 patients with cancer who were undergoing outpatient chemotherapy between October 2015 and April 2016. The SNAQ and the revised SNAQ (addition of age and body mass index) were implemented, and their relationships with Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT), an indicator of bionutritional assessment, were examined. Results : The cutoff value of the SNAQ score corresponding to moderate-to -severe undernourishment in CONUT values was 0.5, with a sensitivity of 87.5% % and a specificity of 65.9% %, and the corresponding values for the revised SNAQ score were 2.5, 91.7% %, and 62.9% %, respectively. This cutoff value and the corresponding positive prediction value for the revised SNAQ were superior to those of SNAQ. Binary logistic regression analysis with the revised SNAQ and sex as independent variables and the CONUT value as the dependent variable revealed that the higher the SNAQ score, the more likely it was that CONUT moderate-to-severe undernourishment would be identified (odds ratio, 1.48 ; , 1.34-1.96) . Conclusion : Nutritional evaluation with the revised SNAQ can predict moderateto-severe undernourishment according to CONUT in patients with cancer undergoing outpatient chemotherapy.

Tailored nutritional guidance by a registered dietitian is necessary for feasible, practical application of nutrition therapy. In order to reduce the requirement for estimation by a dietitian and to increase the time available for practical advice, we developed and validated computer software for estimating dietary intake among patients with type 2 diabetes. The study enrolled 46 patients with type 2 diabetes, recruited from an outpatient clinic in 2015. We used the computer software "Syokuseikatsu Shindan System" (SSS; Nissha, Kyoto, Japan). SSS allows the user to choose pictures of dishes and the portions he/she has consumed for each meal. The one day dietary intake estimations for SSS were validated against a reference estimation of 24 h dietary recall by a registered dietitian. The mean carbohydrate intake as assessed by SSS and 24 h recall was 210.6 ± 55.1 and 215.5 ± 52.9 g/day, with a posi tive correlation (r = 0.53, p<0.001). Bland-Altman analysis showed that limits of agreement in carbohydrates between the methods were-107.4 to 97.5 g/day. Even though the limits of agreement were wide and non negligible at the individual level for clinical use, SSS appears to have potential as a dietary estimation tool under registered dietitian supervision.

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