Dietary antioxidants and bronchial asthma in school children

The relation between dietary factors in school children and asthma has increased significantly in the last 10 years. So, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of bronchial asthma among preparatory school children and to determine the relation between their intake of antioxidant diet and bronchial asthma. A cross sectional study involved 500 students from 3 preparatory schools from Cairo was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to record information about: socio-demographic data, history of bronchial asthma, and food lYeqitency intake: Then the frequencies of consumption of food among asthmatic children and non asthmatic were compared. The prevalence of doctor diagnosed bronchial asthma was 9.6% [45/500], The OR of children who consumed cocked vegetables, tomatoes, fresh fruit and citrus fruit more than four times per week in comparison with those who do not eat these foods were 0.17 [95% CI: 0.06-0.49, p= 0.0002], 0.41 [95% CI: 0.17-0.99, p=0.041], 0.33 [0.12-0.90, p=0.024], 0.28 [95% CI: 0.10-0.76, p=0.007] respectively. After the logistic regression analysis, the adjusted OR of children who consumed fish, cocked vegetables and tomatoes in comparison to those didn't consume these foods remained below one and significant However, consumption of snaks was considered a risk factor for bronchial asthma. The study concluded that a diet rich in vegetables, specially tomatoes, could be has a protective role on childhood bronchial asthma So, it is recommended to do prospective studies and clinical trials to examine the potential beneficial effects of foods containing antioxidants, specially lycopene in reduction of morbidity and mortality rates of bronchial asthma among children

Epidemiological characteristics and the role of cytogenetic investigation in primary amenorrhea

Primary amenorrhea is a major problem in girls of adolescent age This descriptive study was conducted to describe the epidemiology and to identify the proportion of genetic causes and the different chromosomal pattern among patients representing with delayed puberty or primary amenorrhoea who attended the medical genetic center, Ain Shams University. A total of 102 patients were included in the study. All patients underwent complete full history taking, general physical examination, local examination of genital system, hormonal assay, pelvic ultrasound and Karyotyping analysis. Their mean age at diagnosis were [20.1 +/- 4.2.] Secondary sexual characters were not developed among most of the study group [74.5%] Normal phenotypic 46, XX were found among 67.6% of cases, while chromosome abnormalities were found in 32.4%. Among all patients with chromosomal aberrations, 48.5% of then1 had pure line 45, X [turner syndrome], and the remainder had mosaic with normal XX or other aberrations in X. Only one had 46XY, and another one had 47XXX. The frequencies of causes of primary amenorrhea were primary ovarian failure [gonadal dysgenesis] [49%] followed by constitutional delay of puberty [22.5%] then mullerian duct abnormalities [15.7 5%] The study recommended that all females with primary amenorrhea should be investigated cytogenetically and counseling should be directed to hormonal replacement of estrogen and growth hormone for development of secondary sexual characters and normal stature and prevention of osteoporosis

Anthropometric assessment of infants and children [0-24 months] attending primary health care centres [PHCCs] in Cairo Governorate in comparison to WHO growth reference curve

WHO advises the use of an international standard reference curve for monitoring the growth of infants and children. However, other countries found a discrepancy between their anthropometric measures in comparison to those of the WHO. Therefore, they developed their own growth reference curve [RC]

Objectives: To compare anthropometric parameters of Egyptian infants and children [0-24 months] with those calculated in reference to the WHO standards

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at eight PHCCs located at different regions in Cairo Governorate. Data including sex, date of birth, visit date, weight and height were abstracted from the records routinely collected at the PHCCs. Sex specific weight for age, length for age Z scores and percentiles were calculated to our sample and then compared to the WHO growth reference standards

Results: A total of 6656 infants and children were included in our study: 3418 boys and 3238 girls. Below 9 months, the RC assigned a lower proportion of infants as underweight [<-2 Z score] in comparison to our sample. However, from 9 to 24 months the RC allocated a higher proportion of infants and children as underweight than our sample. The same findings were observed in both sexes. On the other hand, the RC considered a higher proportion of infants and children below 2 years as overweight [>+2 Z score] in both sexes in comparison to our sample. Also, the RC assigned a higher proportion of short males in the ages of 6 months, 9, 12 and 18 months in comparison to our sample. In conclusion, disagreement was noticed when comparing our anthropometric measures to those of WHO reference standards consequently, the development of a national Egyptian reference growth curve beside a new international reference curve is mandatory.