Etiologic agents, clinical and laboratory characteristics of acute versus persistent diarrhoea in children who attended the Yangon Children's Hospital

To identify the etiologic agents, clinical and laboratory characteristics of acute and persistent diarrhoea in children less than 12 years of age, a hospital based prospective study was carried out for 18 months in Yangon Children's Hospital. A total of 487 children, 327 with acute and 160 with persistent diarrhoea participated in the study. Intestinal pathogens including bacterial agent 31 per cent, viral agent 6.3 per cent and protozoa 33 per cent were detected in 71 per cent of persistent diarrhoea cases, whereas in acute diarrhoea cases intestinal pathogens were identified in 64 per cent, among which bacterial, viral and protozoal agents were 28 per cent, 11.5 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. More than one enteric pathogen was detected in 13.7 per cent and 16.5 per cent of persistent and acute diarrhoea cases respectively. male children who suffered from diarrhoea were more than females and peak incidence of acute and persistent diarrhoea occurred in the 2-11 month age group. fever and vomiting were found more frequent in persistent than acute diarrhoea during second week of illness and differences were statistically significant. Shigella species, ETEC and e. histolytica were equally isolated from both acute and persistent diarrhoea whereas rota virus was found more ofter in acute than persistent diarrhoea. The presence of leucocytes and reducing substances in the stool was equally frequent.

Drug resistance pattern in sputum positive treatment failure cases admitted to Aung San TB Hospital

One hundred and thirty five sputum positive failure patients admitted to Aung San Tuberculosis Hospital during October 1994 to January 1995 were studied for drug resistance pattern, probable associated clinical, social, demographic factors and sputum negative rate on retreatment. Ninety three cases were able to proceed resistance testing to isoniazid, rifamppicin and streptomycin. The result revealed resistant to one drug (31.2 percent); resistant to 2 drugs (37.7 percent) and resistant to 3 drugs (15.1 percent). Multidrug resistant cases were 22 (23. 7 percent). No significant association was observed between drug resistance and cavity lung lesions, number of drugs previously exposed. An analysis of risk factor for drug resistance revealed no significant differences between age, sex, race, ethnic groups, area of localisation. Alcoholism, tobacco abuse, drug users, overcrowding in living conditions were common demographic characteristics. Inappropriate administration of drugs is commonly observed in patients. Sputum negative rate by short-course chemotherapy and 12-month regimen at the end of initial 3 months were 54.7 percent and 38 percent respectively.

Assessment of the erythrocyte protoporphyrin test for screening of iron deficiency anaemia

A total of 84 apparently healthy children between ages of 1-12 years were screened for iron deficiency with the erythrocyte protoporphyrin (EP) test. Serum iron, total iron binding capacity in serum, percent transferrin saturation, haematocrit and haemoglobin values were also determined together with the screening test. Comparing the relationship between EP and percent transferrin saturation, using a percent transferrin saturation value < 10 percent as the criterion of iron deficiency, the optimal cut off limit for the EP test appears to be 80 ug/dl of rbcs. At this level, this screening test showed a sensitivity of 74 percent and specificity of 95 percent and the positive and negative predictive values were 82 percent and 93 percent respectively. thus EP assay which is less expensive and easy to perform can be used as a screening test for the detection of iron deficiency.