Precipitating factors, clinical features and outcome of diabetic ketoacidosis in children and adolescents admitted in a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka.

Background Information: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). It is an acute complication of type 1 DM. Objective: This study was designed to identify the precipitating factors, clinical features and immediate outcomes of DKA in children and adolescents. Method: This was a retrospective study which was done in the department of Pediatrics, BIRDEM, from January 2002 to April 2007. Data were collected from the hospital record for all diabetic children below 18 years admitted with DKA. Result: Fourty nine children and adolescents were admitted with DKA. Sixty one percent were known cases and the remaining (39%) were new DM. Majority were female (63%). Most (49%) of the children were between 11- 15 years. Infection was the commonest (49%) precipitating factor followed by insulin omission (24%). Major clinical features were kussmaul breathing (94%) and dehydration (94%).Eighty eight percent patients improved after treatment and mortality was 12%. Conclusion: Infection was the commonest precipitating factor of DKA. Kussmaul breathing and dehydration were the commonest clinical features. Most of the patients improved after treatment.

Cleidocranial dysplasia.

Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) is a disorder that affects mostly those bones which derived from endochrondal and intramembranous ossification, such as the cranium and the clavicles. CCD is present at a frequency of one in one million individuals. Over 500 cases have been reported. A 13 years old boy reported in the Paediatric Endocrinology outpatient department, Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation on Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) on 6th April 2006 with complaints of not growing according to his age, a wide gap over the head since birth and delayed shedding of primary teeth and also eruption of secondary teeth. The boy had elongated facies with midfacial hypoplasia, depressed nasal bridge with hypertelorism. His anterior fontanelle was open about 3/1.5 cm. He had short clavicle and his shoulders could be easily apposed. Radiological findings showed anterior fontanellle and sutures were open and widened, all decidual teeth were intact and all secondary teeth were impacted beneath the primary teeth and hypoplastic clavicle. He was diagnosed as a case of Cleidocranial Dysplasia on the basis of history, clinical examination and investigation.

Vaginal bleeding with multicystic ovaries and a pituitary mass in a child with severe hypothyroidism.

A seven year and ten months old girl presented with cyclic vaginal bleeding and a huge abdominopelvic mass. She had clinical features of hypothyroidism. The investigation results were consistent with the diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism with precocious puberty. She also had bilaterally enlarged cystic ovaries on CT scan of abdomen and CT scan of brain showed pituitary macroadenoma. After starting treatment with thyroxine, patient became euthyroid and her general condition improved. Treatment with thyroxine alone halted the cyclic vaginal bleeding, led to rapid resolution of the ovarian cysts and regression of the pituitary mass.