ABSTRACT
Background: Epilepsy is widespread in developing countriescompared to that in developed countries. The reason ofepilepsy in most cases is unknown. Considering the factthat the nutritional status of children in developing countriesis generally poor, our objective was to determine possiblerelationship between nutritional status and epilepsy.Material and methods: Towards this, we gather a datasetof 34 Cases from the Department of Pediatric and as manyControls from the local populace. The age group (5-8.5 years),sex, and gender data is also augmented with educationaland socioeconomic history along with the results of clinicalexaminations, such as, weight, height and body mass index.Results: Our statistical results unveil insignificantdifference in socioeconomic status and educational levels inbetween the parents of Cases and Controls. Additionally, asignificantly higher value of anthropometric measurementsin Controls is observed compared to that of the Casesi.e.Height (117.38±6.05 vs. 112.21±6.82 cm; p value 0.002),Weight (21.29±2.83 vs. 18.14±2.94 kg; p value <0.001) andBody mass index(15.39±1.03 vs.14.33±1.26 kg/m2; p value<0.001).Conclusion: Our results show that generalized epilepsymay have effect on growth and development of children,reflecting that nutritional programs are required to improvethe nutritional status in children with generalized epilepsy soas to optimize their growth and development.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Transthoracic electrical bio-impedance (TEB) has been proposed as a non-invasive and continuous method of cardiac output (CO) measurement, but it still has not found wide usages in clinics. The present study measured CO, using a new instrument NICOMON, and compared it with Echocardiography (ECHO) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. Methods: In the present study 100 patients of AMI were assessed by both ECHO and NICOMON for cardiac output and ECHO is considered as a reference method for comparison. TEB CO was measured by passing an alternating current and measuring the bio-impedance across the thorax. End diastolic volume (EDV), End systolic volume (ESV) & Left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) diameter, measured by ECHO were used to calculate CO. Various statistical methods like “t”-test & correlation coefficient (r) were used where found suitable. Results: Mean TEB-CO (4.03±1.11 l/min) was significantly higher (p<0.001) than mean ECHO-CO (3.80±1.28 l/min) with a mean difference of 0.25±1.02 l/min. Conclusions: NICOMON measures CO non-invasively but, it needs more elaborative studies on a larger sample to establish it as an alternative method of ECHO for cardiac output measurement on regular basis.