Comparative study of vitamin [D] Status in Full Term and Preterm Infants and Their Respective Mothers

Background: Vitamin D Is important for maintenance of calcium and phosphorus homeostasis and bone mineralization. Vitamin D deficiency in the mothers has possible adverse effects on the fetus and contributes to low vitamin D in infancy

Objectives: To assess vitamin D status, calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphate in preterm infants and their mothers

Patients and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 46 neonates, and their mothers

The study was conducted between July and December 2013. The following had been done for all patients: Full medical history and clinical examination for mothers and their neonates, Laboratory investigation: Maternal blood And cord blood samples were collected at Delivery to measure vitamin D [vit. D], Calcium [Ca], phosphorus [P] and alkaline phosphate [ALP]

Results: Maternal hypovitaminosis D [vitamin D [25 [OH] D] <10 ng//ML was found in 89.% of pregnant women at the time of delivery and neonatal hypovitaminosis D [vitamin D <10 ng//mL] was found in 93.5% of studied neonates

Maternal vit D did not correlate to maternal dietary vit D, but it correlated to cord blood vit D was correlated to cord blood vit D but not cord blood Ca, Phosphorus, or alkaline phosphates

Conclusion: Vitamin D levels in Egyptian mothers delivery is deficient and it correlates well to cord blood Vitamin D levels

Effect of vision problems on health status of primary school children

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of vision problems on health status of primary school children. The sample included 250 primary school children at primary schools and ophthalmic clinic affiliated to students health insurance in El-Khosous district. Their age ranged between 9-12 years. For data collection, four tools were used: the first tool was an interviewing questionnaire for assessing the socio-demographic characteristic of the primary school children, their medical history, Parent's awareness about health needs and problems of primary school children, the dangerous effect of vision problems on health status and scholastic achievement of their children and Assessment sheet for life style, e.g., [nutritional habits, hygiene, sleep].Second tool was Physical assessment sheet for Monitoring growth and development, Physical observation from head to toes for child.. Third tool was medical record review.. Fourth tool was an observational check list for learning environment at school. The study reflected that more than half [58.4%]of the studied sample had poor vision. There were no statistically association between the vision problem and children' scholastic achievement, there is a significant statistically association between the children' life style and the vision problem occurrence. This study recommended the needs to increase public and family awareness through mass media to provide more explanations about vision problems and their effects on health status of the children

effect of psychiatric consultation and intervention on the health outcome of G.I.T. patients

Psychological factors has been linked with both irritable bowel syndrome and peptic ulcers since the conditions were first defined. They used to be called psychosomatic disorders. Recently the credibility of the term psychosomatic has been questioned in the tenth edition of the international classification of diseases ICD 10. This study aims at shading new light on the relationship between the psychological factors and gastrointestinal disorders in terms of prevalence of psychological symptoms, personality profile, frequency of negative life events within the past year and the possible role of antidepressants and standardized psychotherapeutic intervention in the health outcome of the gastrointestinal patients. Ninety I.B.S. patients, 90 peptic ulcer patients and 90 controls has been evaluated for the above named factors. Depressive symptoms have been found very prominent in the patients groups. Patients have high neuroticism and introversion scores on Eysenk personality inventory, negative life events were more prominent in patients than controls with no difference between I.B.S. and peptic ulcer patients. The gastrointestinal symptoms become better after treatment by antidepressants and supportive psychotherapy. Depressive symptoms were also better but the degree of improvement was not correlated. Antidepressants play its role through its antimuscarinic effect sedating or analgesic effect in addition to its antidepressant effect. The authors concluded that the term psychosomatic is to be used at least to describe conditions such as I.B.S. which has been called functional before, specially if psychological factors proved to play a crucial role in its causation, course and cure