Asthma in children below 5 years of age: diagnosis and treatment

Asthma is the most frequent chronic disease in pediatrics and the increase in its prevalence is a major public health problem. Diagnosis may be difficult in the young child, symptomatology most often occurring following a viral infection. It is important not to ignore a foreign body in the airways or fibrocystic disease and asthma remains, particularly in infants, a diagnosis of elimination. Misdiagnosis or insufficient treatment of asthma may risk the development of irreversible histological lesions and also could compromise pulmonary growth and the child's lung reserve. Spacer devices and nebulisers enable inhaled therapy to be administered to very young children. The value of early diagnosis is to institute appropriate treatment notably in severe asthma with inhaled corticosteroid therapy, the aim being to reduce remodelling lesions of the airways. The minimal effective dose should be defined to minimalize side-effects. The treatment of asthma is not restricted to pharmacotherapy: attempts should be made to reduce intercurrent viral infections, domestic pollution (including smoking) and allergenic concentrations. However, as for all chronic diseases, the clinician will encounter poor compliance. The work of education and support of health professionals is fundamental to the management of asthma.     

Risk factors of persistent diarrhea in children below five years of age.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Persistent diarrhea is a known cause of childhood mortality, morbidity and malnutrition in developing countries. This study was conducted to find out the host and environmental risk factors associated with persistent diarrhea in Bangladeshi children below 5 years of age. DESIGN: Prospective analytic case-control study. SETTING: Tertiary hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. METHODS: Fifty children with persistent diarrhea and 50 controls with acute diarrhea (matched for age and sex) comprised the study subjects. RESULTS: Most of the children (82%) were aged below 2 years. Among the risk factors, Grade III malnutrition (p<0.008), irrational antibiotic use during acute diarrheal episode (p<0.0000005), use of unsafe drinking water (p<0.004) and lack of exclusive breast-feeding up to the first four months of life (p<0.004) were significantly associated with persistent diarrhea. Logistic analysis showed irrational antibiotic use (p<0.0001) during an episode of acute diarrhea and lack of exclusive breast-feeding (p<0.05) during the first four months of life as independent risk factors associated with persistent diarrhea. CONCLUSION: Improvement of nutritional status, encouraging exclusive breast-feeding during the first four months of life, discouraging the irrational use of antibiotic for the treatment of acute diarrhea, and provision of safe drinking water may be important for the prevention of persistent diarrhea as these have been identified as risk factors in Bangladeshi children below five years of age.     

Diabetic foot in patients below 40 years of age

Data on diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) in young patients are scarce. We aimed to examine the risk factors, clinical presentation, wound characteristics, and outcome of DFU among young diabetic patients and to compare them with similar age diabetics without foot ulcer and those of older age diabetics with foot ulcers. A prospective cohort of 745 patients (834 ulcers) below 40 years of age, 7620 patients (9405 ulcers) ages 40 years and above, and 992 patients below 40 years diabetics without foot ulcers in a single multidisciplinary diabetes center were studied. Registered patients with foot ulcers in Jabir Abu Eliz Diabetes Centre (JADC) in Khartoum, Sudan from March 2001 to Dec 2011 were reviewed. Below 40 years of age constituted 8.9 % (n?=?7450) of all patients with DFU. Male-to-female ratio was 1.7:1. IDDM type was prevalent in 60.9 %. Thirty-six per cent of below 40 years had peripheral neuropathy compared to 61.6 % of older group (p?<?0.0002) and 8.7 % of below 40 without DFU (p?<?0.0002). ABI <0.9 was found in 38.7 % (n?=?288) in below 40 years with ulcers compared to 41.4 % in older patients (p?=?0.8989) and 36.3 % (n?=?360) of below 40 without DFU (p?=?0.3125). HbA1c >7 % was significantly more in diabetics below 40 years with foot ulcers compared to those without foot ulcers (83.5 vs. 75.1 %) (p?=?0.0002). In below 40 years of age, 80.1 % of ulcers healed compared to 70.6 % in older age group (p?>?0.0002). Major lower extremity amputation was performed in 4.8 % in below 40 years patients compared to 7.3 % in older group (0.0105). Young diabetics with foot ulcers had significantly longer duration of the disease, more foot deformities, and callus formation and more severe neuropathy than young diabetics without ulcers but had a lesser duration of diabetes than elderly diabetics with foot ulcers. HbA1c in young diabetics with foot ulcers was significantly higher than young diabetics without ulcers, and their foot ulcers healed better and with less major lower extremity amputation than elderly patients.     

The tuberculin reaction two years after the initial two-step tuberculin skin test in our hospital

The tuberculin skin test was carried out to employees of our hospital one and two years later after the initial two-step tuberculin skin test in 1999 to examine the possibility of new tuberculosis infection. Nineteen weakly positive reactors aged 39-year-old or less in 1999 were followed up by tuberculin reaction for two years. The significant changes were not recognized in either the size of erythema or the size of induration, examined by one-way ANOVA and Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison procedure. Among weakly positive reactors aged 39-year-old or less, it seemed that there had been no new tuberculosis infection during 2 years follow-up.     

Rheumatic cardiopathy in children younger than 6 years of age]

Most of the published papers on Rheumatic Fever (RF) have not included the younger population. We selected 211 cases of children with RF younger than 6 years of age from 9,471 clinical files from 1944 to 1982. These were followed retrospectively to identify the presence of rheumatic activity, subsequent attacks and penicillin profilaxis. From de 211 cases, 209 had carditis; 57% of them were girls and 43% boys. There were no previous infections of the upper respiratory tract in 36% of the patients. The number of cases with RF increased abruptly after 3 years of age and continued increasing until 5 years of age when 70.5% of the population had there first clinically recognized attack. Lesions were present in the mitral valve in 80% of the cases, in the aortic valve in 12%, in the tricuspid in 5% and in the pulmonary valve in 3%. The death rate during the first attack was 20% being refractory heart failure the main cause of death. Thirteen cases suffered rheumatic pneumonia, 9 of whom died (69.2%). Conclusions: 1) The incidence of acute rheumatic fever in children under 6 years of age has decreased with time. 2) The death rate as well as the valvular damage decreased with the parents cooperation with the treatment. 3) The changes in the clinical picture and the severity of valve sequelea may be due to penicillin profilaxis and the better understanding of the disease.     

Intestinal protozoal infestation profile in persistent diarrhea in children below age 5 years in western Nepal

Unlike acute diarrhea, the role of pathogens in persistent diarrhea in children in Nepal is unclear. Protozoal parasites are suspected to be a major cause. The study was carried out to find the association between protozoal agents and persistent diarrhea in children below age 5 years from western Nepal. Stool samples were collected from 253 children with persistent diarrhea, from 155 children with acute diarrhea (disease controls) and from 100 healthy children from the community (normal controls). Of 253 children with persistent diarrhea, 90 (35.5%) had protozoal infections, 63 (24.9%) helminthic infections, 32 (12.6%) had bacterial infections and 16 had mixed infections. Giardia lamblia was the most prevalent (67.7%), followed by Entamaeba histolytica (27.7%). HIV infection and severe malnutrition were associated with Cyclospora cayetanensis and Cryptosporidium spp causing persistent diarrhea. We conclude that stool microscopy should be routinely performed in children with persistent diarrhea since protozoal infections can be cured with effective treatment and control can be achieved by proper health education.     

Primary pulmonary arterial hypertension in children under 2 years of age]

A retrospective analysis of 18 patients under two years of age who suffered from primary pulmonary hypertension was made between july 1982 november 1988 in order to define their clinical course and prognosis. Perinatal history was irrelevant. In 13 patients diagnosis was established before the first year of life and in 8 of them in the neonatal period. All patients presented the same symptomatology: Cyanosis, dyspnea and/or repeated respiratory infections. The electrocardiogram showed various degrees of enlargement of the right atrium and right ventricle as well as an uneven ST segment in the precordial leads; these could not be related to the systolic or diastolic pressures of the right ventricle. In the chest roentgenogram the most important and constant feature was the heart enlargement. Cardiac catheterization showed a mean pulmonary systolic arterial pressure of 64.46 mmHg and a mean pulmonary arterial resistance of 6.4 U/m.2 These parameters could not be related to a bad prognosis. Three patients were given vasodilators (hydralazine) with positive clinical and echocardiographic results. Five patients died (27%) two months after the diagnosis was made and three months after the onset of symptomatology, four of them died due to congestive heart failure and one had sudden death. This study shows the early onset of the disease as well as its short term high mortality.