ABSTRACT
Purpose@#Pediatric patients in low-income countries are at a high risk of malnutrition.Numerous screening tools have been developed to detect the risk of malnutrition, including the Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA), Pediatric Yorkhill Malnutrition Score (PYMS), Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP), and Screening Tool for Risk of Nutritional Status and Growth (STRONGkids). However, anthropometry remains the main tool for assessing malnutrition. We aimed to identify the value of four nutritional screening tools versus anthropometry for evaluating the nutritional status of children. @*Methods@#We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1,000 children aged 1–12 years who visited the outpatient clinic of Cairo University Pediatric Hospital. Each participant was evaluated using anthropometric measurements (weight, length/height, and weight for length/height) as well as the PYMS, STAMP, STRONGkids, and SGNA screening tools. The sensitivities and specificities of these four tools were assessed using anthropometry as the gold standard. @*Results@#Of the patients, 1.7% were underweight, 10.2% were wasted, and 35% were stunted.STRONGkids demonstrated the highest sensitivity (79.4%) and a high specificity (80.2%) for detecting malnutrition compared with weight for height, followed by STAMP, which demonstrated lower sensitivity (73.5%) but higher specificity (81.4%). PYMS demonstrated the lowest sensitivity (66.7%) and the highest specificity (93.5%), whereas SAGA demonstrated higher sensitivity (77.5%) and lower specificity (85.4%) than PYMS. @*Conclusion@#The use of nutritional screening tools to evaluate the nutritional status of children is valuable and recommended as a simple and rapid method for identifying the risk of malnutrition in pediatric patients.
ABSTRACT
Hepatopulmonary syndrome [HPS] is a rare but severe complication in children with chronic liver disease [CLD] that may necessitate "urgent" liver transplantation. This study aimed at studying the feasibility and usefulness of pulmonary function testing [PFT] in the diagnosis of lung affections in a group of Egyptian children with chronic liver disease [CLD] in order to diagnose HPS in them. Twenty five Egyptian children [aged 10-16 years with a mean of 12.4 +/- 1.8 years] with different causes of CLD and 8 age-matched, healthy controls were subjected to arterial blood gas analysis, PFT and measurement of mean pulmonary artery pressure [MPAP]. Arterial oxygen pressure [Pa0[2]] less than 80 mmHg was present in 10 patients, forced expiratory volume in I second [FEV[1]] less than 80% predicted in 15, forced vital capacity [FVC] less than 80% predicted in 15 and the ratio FEV[1]:FVC less than 65% predicted in 20. Carbon monoxide diffusion capacity [DL[CO]] was less than 80% predicted in 15 patients and 4 controls. Hypoxemia occurred in 60% of patients with decreased DL[co] but none of controls. MPAP was significantly lower in patients than controls, it increased with exercise but not significantly. Neither portal hypertension nor sclerotherapy showed a significant relation to hypoxemia, or low MPAP. Also the duration of CLD, its histological severity and grading of fibrosis were not related to any of the pulmonary function tests. Arterial hypoxemia is present in CLD. PFT was rather "tedious" but non-invasive investigation in children with CLD. It did demonstrate obstructive airway as well as diffusion defects in these children. Therefore we may recommend PFT in the work-up of children with CLD, particularly if liver transplantation is contemplated
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Chronic Disease , Respiratory Function Tests , Blood Gas Analysis , Child , Liver Diseases , Liver Transplantation , Hypertension, Portal , Sclerotherapy , UltrasonographyABSTRACT
Fetal biophysical profile score [BPS] is widely adopted as a method of antepartum fetal surveillance. However, reports on BPS in this region are scare. In this study, 26 pregnant women were assessed by BPS and their outcomes were evaluated. We could demonstrate that low BPS category of 2, 4 or 6 are significantly associated with higher fetal morbidity. Therefore, a wide use of this scoring system is strongly recommended