Procalcitonin in community acquired pneumonia

This study aimed to find out a specific and sensitive method for diagnosing bacterial origin of pneumonia. The study included four groups of patients: The first group included 20 children suffering from pneumonia, while the second group included 20 normal children of the same ages as controls; the third group included 27 adults admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and the fourth group included 20 normal adults as controls. Procalcitonin was measured in all groups. There was a significant difference between the patients and the control groups in both children and adults

impact of sex on iron status in first year of life

Iron deficiency anemia is prevalent allover the world especially in poor countries. Normal iron status is essential for normal behavioral and mental health. Supplementation of iron in the early stages will protect the infant from the permanent psychomotor changes resulting from its deficiency. ZPP/ H ratio is found to be effective in detecting the pre-anemic state. In this study we examined the differences of iron status in female and male infants at the ages of 4, 6 and 12 months. We found that ZPP/H ratio is significantly higher in boys than in girls in the three groups studied denoting their vulnerability to have iron deficiency anemia

Comparative study of the psychomotor development in breast fed versus artificially fed infants

Breast feeding is the most desirable means, of feeding normal infants, but many infants are currently fed infant formulas and so, evaluation of the adequacy of such formulas is an important topic in the field of pediatrics. In this study we aimed to find the differences in the anthropomoteric measurements and intelligence between breast-fed and artificially fed infants aging 18 to 24 months. In this study we found that breast-feeding significantly affect leg length than formula feeding. There is significant difference in the skin fold thickness in the artificially fed infants than in the breast-fed. The social IQ Is higher in the artificially fed infants

C - Peptide inThalassemic Patients

Thalassemia is one of the commonest hemolytic diseases, especially in the Middle East region. In spite of the use of the iron chelation therapy, serious complications due to iron overload still occur in the thalassemic patients. Endocrinal complications are among the serious complications of hemosiderosis. In this study, the C-peptide level in thalassemic patients was measured. The C-peptide level was found to be high in three cases representing 10% of the cases but it was statistically nonsignificant

role of scrum nitric oxide in neonatal sepsis

Sepsis is still one of the most important causes of mortality and morbidity in the neonatal period. Knowledge of neonatal risk factors together with early markers of sepsis accelerate the diagnosis of sepsis with prognostic improvements. Numerous investigators have evaluated the usefulness of various laboratory tests in the diagnosis of systemic infection in the neonates. This study measured the level of serum nitric oxide in thirty neonates with sepsis and in twenty healthy newborns as control. Nitric oxide was highly significant in the neonates with sepsis. We also compared the levels of nitric oxide with CRP and TLC. Nitric oxide was found to be a significant marker of neonatal sepsis