Relationship Between Resistin Levels and Sepsis Among Children Under 12 Years of Age: A Case Control Study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the level of resistin in children with and without sepsis hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and compare them to levels in healthy subjects in order to determine the trend of resistin levels in children in PICUs and also to identify the cut-off values for positive sepsis. Methods: This was a case-control study conducted in 2014 at a children's hospital in Tabriz, Iran. Three groups were investigated, a case group comprised of patients with sepsis admitted to PICU and two control groups; one made up of patients admitted to PICU without sepsis and the other of healthy children. Variables included demographic, anthropometric (growth metric percentile), and clinical factors. Results: Patients were randomized into control group A (n = 12, 48%), control group B (n = 11, 44%), and the sepsis group (n = 24, 47.1%). The difference in the means of resistin levels was significant on the first, fourth, and seventh days (P < 0.0001) in the case and control group A. Means comparisons in the case and control group B revealed significant differences on the fourth and seventh day (P = 0.005 and P < 0.0001, respectively) but not on the first day (P = 0.246). The trend of resistin levels increased in the septic group (F Huynh-Feldt = 37.83, P < 0.0001). The diagnostic accuracy of resistin level was high for discriminating sepsis (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0.864 [SE = 0.41]). The sensitivity was 0.824 and specificity 0.72 with a cut-off point of 5.2 ng/ml on the first day. Conclusion: In the present study, resistin level can be used as an indicator of sepsis in children admitted to PICU. However, the cut-off point based upon when a prediction could be made is different and is dependent on a variety of factors, such as control group and number of days since the first signs of sepsis.

Supplemental food may not prevent iron-deficiency anemia in infants.

OBJECTIVE: The present study evaluates the role of supplementary food and medicinal iron intake in preventing iron deficiency anemia in children aged between 4 to 6 months. METHODS: During a case-control study in "Tabriz Children Hospital", nutritional and medicinal-iron intake of 60 consecutively selected patients with iron-deficiency anemia were compared with 60 non-anemic children of similar age and sex distributions. RESULTS: The mean hemoglobin concentration, corpuscular volume and serum iron were 9.11 g/dl, 65.41 fL and 19.33 microg/dl, in case group; and 12.6 g/dl, 75.18 fL and 78.28 microg/dl, in control group, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between age of case and control groups when complementary-semisolid foods were started (P=0.058), but the mean of received medicinal iron in case group was significantly lower than control group (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Supplementary food intake alone is not efficient to prevent iron deficiency anemia since the age of 4-6 months. So, regular administration of medicinal iron is crucial to prevent iron-deficiency anemia in children aged 4-6 months.

Transanal one-stage endorectal pull-through for Hirschsprung's disease: a comparison with the staged procedures.

Transanal one-stage endorectal pull-through (TOSEPT) has been presented as the most recent progression in treatment of Hirschsprung's disease (HD), which may be able to replace various previous techniques. This prospective study was designed to compare the efficacy and probable complications of the commonly used open surgery with those of TOSEPT technique in management of HD. Forty-two children (35 boys and 7 girls) between 3 days and 12 years of age underwent surgical treatment for HD-all after being diagnosed by barium enema over an 18-month period. In a manner of systematic random selection, 21 patients were operated by TOSEPT and the other 21 by Swenson procedures. All patients were followed-up at least for 12 months after hospital discharge. The necessary data containing age, sex, length of the resected aganglionic segment, intraoperative details, duration of hospital stay and postoperative functional results or complications were collected during hospitalization and follow-up period. There was no significant difference in age at the first operation, sex distribution and length of resected bowel between the two groups. Rate of postoperative complications were significantly higher in Swenson procedure group (P < 0.01). Narcotics were needed in all patients of Swenson procedure group but only in two patients operated by TOSEPT also required laparotomy (P < 0.001). The hospitalization period of TOSEPT group was also less than that of Swenson group (P < 0.001). The total cost of treatment by Swenson procedure is considerably higher than by TOSEPT. TOSEPT can significantly diminish postoperative pain, surgical complications, hospital stay and cost burden caused by Hirschsprung's disease. Besides, this procedure is cosmetically preferable because no visible scar remains.