study of fibronectin in malnourished children

ABSTRACT

Three groups were studied herein. The first group comprised 22 malnourished infants. The second group comprised 10 infants selected from the first group and followed up after treatment. The third group comprised 12 healthy infants as control. After taking a full clinical history and doing a thorough clinical examination, cases and control were subjected to the following investigations Complete blood picture, serum albumin, the estimation of plasma fibronectin level by single radial immuno-diffusion, which was repeated twice for the second group, then statistical analysis of the data obtained. Plasma fibronectin showed a marked decrease in cases of malnutrition, which was reversed by treatment of malnutrition. The plasma fibronectin showed a positive correlation with serum albumin which also showed a marked decrease in cases of malnutrition. The lowering of plasma fibronectin in cases of malnutrition showed a statistically significant difference from that of the control, while the rise after treatment showed an insignificant difference from the control i.e. it reached to the normal level