ABSTRACT
Serum zinc was measured in 103 Brazilian children from low income families, 3 months to 6 years of age, with the purpose of characterizing their zinc nutritional status. Serum albumin was determined in some of the children studied. They were grouped in three categories according to the adequacy of height for age and weight for height indices related to the growth curves determined for Brazilian children. There were 30 normal, 18 acutely malnourished and five chronically malnourished children. This criteria was complemented by the Gomez criteria. Thirty healthy adults of both sexes served as a reference group for the analytical procedures. In the adults, serum zinc was 107.5 +/- 14.5 micrograms/dl, similar to values observed by other investigators, and significantly higher than in all of the children studied. Serum zinc of normal children was 98.3 +/- 15.7 micrograms/dl. It decreased with the degree of malnutrition, being significant for second degree acutely malnourished (87.8 +/- 9.2 micrograms/dl; p less than 0.05) and chronically malnourished children (68.7 +/- 8.9 micrograms/dl; p less than 0.001). Serum zinc and albumin correlated significantly (r = 0.51; n = 37; p less than 0.01), particularly in the severely malnourished children (r = 0.63; n = 8; p less than 0.05).
Subject(s)
Zinc/blood , Adult , Age Factors , Anthropometry , Brazil , Child , Child, Preschool , Colorimetry , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Protein-Energy Malnutrition/blood , Reference Values , Serum Albumin/analysis , Socioeconomic Factors , Spectrophotometry, AtomicABSTRACT
Relatamos o caso de um lactentes de dois meses e quinze dias de vida, internado em uma clinica por bronquiolite onde recebeu uma transfusao mal indicada de globulos vermelhos concentrados e que desafortunadamente estavam contaminados. Esta crianca apresentava quadro grave de septicemia por Pseudomonas aeruginosa a internacao no IPPMG. Tratando-se de uma latrogenia, sem resposta ao tratamento antimicrobiano convencional, usamos com septicemia, com bons resultados e sem efeitos colaterais. Apos introducao da Propsonina houve melhora progressiva do quadro clinico, indicando que seu uso foi importante para evolucao, cura e prognostico
