Intestinal Malrotation and Ladd's Bands in a Young Child

The case we present; is an interesting example of intestinal malrotation; which is a well known congenital condition; which tend to manifest early in life. In our case the age of our patient made the diagnosis potentially more challenging; as it was not the most typical age for duodenal stenosis due to Ladd's bands; which is often mostly observed earlier in life. Stenosis of the duodenum is relatively rare; and may represent a surgical challenge; especially in setting with limited diagnostic and treatment facilities. We also discuss implication of language barriers to potentially delay timely diagnosis and optimal management

Impact Of Health Awareness Intervention Among The Women Sweepers Working Under The Midnapore Municipality Of West Bengal, India.

Background: Women sweepers is the vulnerable segment of our community and suffering from different occupational health problems due to limited education, lack of knowledge on occupational health hazards. The present study aimed to assess the awareness level regarding occupational health and personal hygiene and to evaluate the effect of occupational health intervention among the women sweepers. Methods: The study adopted a pre-test and post-test design. A total of 52 women sweepers in the age group of 25 to 60 years were selected randomly from Midnapore Municipality of West Bengal, India. At first, a self-structured questionnaire was prepared on the aspects of general health, occupational health, personal hygiene, environmental health and nutritional aspects. After the pre-awareness assessment an intervention package was delivered covering said domains. Than post testing was done on the participants after the period of intervention. Results: Results demonstrated that there was a considerable increase in the awareness levels among the women sweepers with regard to knowledge of health problems, occupational health. The knowledge of participants regarding personal hygiene improved markedly after imparting the intervention. With regards to preventive approaches of diseases among the women has increased after the intervention. Overall health knowledge increased significantly post-awareness stage than pre-awareness stage (P<0.001). Conclusion: The study concluded that occupational health intervention has a positive effect towards the improvement of awareness level among the women sweepers which may change their health habits.

Evaluation of Nutritional Status by Mid-Upper Arm Circumference Amongst Affluent Children.

Introduction: Anthropometry is widely accepted as low-cost technique for defining the nutritional status of children. The mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) is a fast screening method in detecting acute malnutrition and it is also a predictor of childhood mortality. Materials and Methods: This is the retrospective study to evaluate the nutritional status based on mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) among urban, pre-school age children. A total of 1060 children, aged 1 to 3 years, attending the vaccination clinic of the Indian Red Cross Society Paschim Medinipur Hospital over a two years period, were enrolled in the study. The measurement of MUAC (in centimetres) was taken by the standard technique. Undernutrition was defined based on age and sex-specific MUAC cut-off values as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Results: Boys were higher level of mean MUAC than girls at all ages and there was no significant sex differences. The age-combined rate of overall undernutrition was 18.96% and it was slightly higher among the boys (19.38%) than girls (18.46%). The age-combined moderate undernutrition was higher among the boys (16.08% vs 14.11%) but girls’ value was higher in case of severe undernutrition (3.28% vs 4.35%). Conclusion: The present study showed that a remarkable number of pre-schooler was undernourished based on MUAC.

A Comparative Study on Nutritional Status of Urban and Rural Early Adolescent School Girls of West Bengal, India.

Objectives: Adolescents remain largely neglected and especially girl from a deprived section in our society. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the nutritional status of early adolescent school girl from rural and urban areas. The study was, therefore, carried out to determine and compare the nutritional status of adolescent girl attending urban and rural secondary schools in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. Methods: Cross-sectional data based on anthropometric measurements (height, weight) was collected from 2545 girls aged 10 to 14 years attending Govt. approved schools in Kharagpur town and Dantan-II block. The nutritional status has been assessed with the help of some anthropometric indices. The weight and height were recorded for each girl, and converted to nutritional indices (weightfor- age, height-for-height, BMI-for-age Z-scores of the National Center for Health Statistics reference standrads). Results: The mean nutritional indices (underweight, stunting and thinness) were found to be much lower among the rural girl than urban girl. The overall prevalent rates of underweight, stunting and thinness were 27.9%, 32.5% and 20.2% respectively. In the rural area these were 35.4%, 35.7% and 26.3%, while in the urban they were 19.6%, 29.0% and 13.6% respectively. Conclusions: The present study shows that undernutrition constituted major health problems among early adolescent school girls in rural areas of India. Hence, the special emphases are needed to formulate various developmental and healthcare programmes for rural communities to prevent undernutrition.

Cardiac Abnormalities of Sudanese Patients with Down's Syndrome and their Short-Term Outcome : Cardiovascular Topics

Background : Congential heart disease (CHD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with Down's syndrome (DS). Methods : All patients with DS seen at the Sudan Heart Centre from July 2004 to November 2007 were included in the study. All patients were examined clinically and echocardiographically; and cardiac catheterisation was carried out in selected patients. All patients were prospectively followed up. Results : In the study period; 1 566 patients were evaluated forheart disease. Of these; 80 patients with DS were identified (5). Their ages ranged from 15 days to 18 years. Cardiac abnormalities included atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) in 38 patients (48); with the complete form in 25; a partialform in seven; AVSD with intact atrial septum in one; and complex AVSD in four patients. In one patient there was AVSD with right atrioventricular valve malformation with severe valve regurgitation and functional pulmonary atresia. The other main lesions were ventricular septal defect (VSD) in 19 patients (23) and tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) in five (6). Cardiac catheterisation was done in four patients with AVSD to measure pulmonary pressures and resistance; and in one patient with patent ductus arteriosus for device closure. Ten percent of the patients had Eisenmenger's syndrome at the time of presentation. Only 15of patients who were in need of surgery were operated on ; all had an uneventful postoperative course and a good outcome at a mean follow-up period of one year. Conclusion : The pattern of CHD in Sudanese patients with DS was comparable with that in the literature; including the rare occurrence of AVSD with intact atrial septum. In addition; we described an unreported association with right atrioventricular valve malformation. Although there was a significant delay in diagnosis and surgery; surgical results and short-term follow up were good