Clinico-epidemiological profile, including body mass index of Malaysian children with psoriasis.

BACKGROUND: Limited information exists regarding paediatric psoriasis and its association with body mass index (bMI) in Asia. OBJECTIVES: to determine the clinico-epidemiological profile and to compare the bMI of children with and without psoriasis. METHODS: A case-control study of 92 children with psoriasis versus 59 with atopic eczema and 56 with non-inflammatory skin conditions. RESULTS: Psoriasis was more common in Malay and Indian children when compared to Chinese with odds ratios (Or) of 4.30 (95% CI, 1.85-9.99) and 3.00 (95% CI, 1.02-8.81) respectively. Prevalence of psoriasis was similar between Malay and Indian children (Or 1.43, 95% CI, 0.63-3.25). Male:female ratio was 1:1.09. the mean onset age of psoriasis was 7.9 years. Median onset age was earlier in males (6.5 years versus 9.0 years in females, p=0.05). Plaque psoriasis was the most common phenotype (89.1%) and 94.5% had scalp lesions. Arthritis was seen in 4.3%. Odds of excess adiposity, defined as bMI ≤85th percentile, was higher in children with psoriasis versus noninflammatory controls (Or 2.35, 95% CI 0.99-5.56, p= 0.052). No increased risk of adiposity was noted between children with psoriasis and eczema (Or 1.14, 95% CI 0.5-2.62, p=0.753). More children with psoriasis (17.4%) and eczema (20.3%) were underweight (bMI <5th percentile) compared to non-inflammatory controls (10.7%). CONCLUSION: Malays and Indians are three to four times more likely than Chinese to have psoriasis in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Plaque psoriasis is the most common phenotype. Odds of excess adiposity is about two times higher in children with psoriasis compared to non-inflammatory controls although this observation just missed conventional statistical significance.

Rockall risk score in predicting 30 days non-variceal upper gastrointestinal rebleeding in a Malaysian population.

OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of Rockall score in predicting outcomes of 30 days rebleeding, mortality and need for surgical intervention of bleeding gastric and duodenal ulcers. METHODS: this is a retrospective cohort study of all the emergency endoscopies performed in Hospital sultan Ismail from January 2009 to October 2014 for indications of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIb). Data was extracted from hospital's electronic database and only non-variceal bleeds were included. Rockall score was calculated and outcomes of 30 days rebleeding, mortality and need for surgery was recorded. For each outcome, calibration was done using the Goodness-of-fit tests and discriminative ability was reflected by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROc). RESULTS: A total of 1323 patients were included with a male preponderance of 64%. the overall rates of rebleeding were 11.2%, mortality rate of 8.7% and need for surgery was 2%. Low AUROc values for rebleeding (0.63), mortality (0.58) and surgery (0.67) showed poor discriminative ability of Rockall score. the Goodness-of-fit test also revealed that the scoring system was poorly calibrated in outcomes of rebleeding (p <0.001), mortality (p = 0.001) and surgery (p = 0.038) with p-value <0.05. Patients with high risk (scores ≥8) displayed highest rebleeding and mortality rates of 20% respectively in comparison to the moderate (score 3-7) and low (score ≤2) risk groups. CONCLUSION: Rockall score has a poor discriminative ability and is poorly calibrated for rebleeding, mortality and need for surgery in upper gastrointestinal bleeding. However, it is the best tool we have now to stratify patients into risk groups.

Diabetic ketoacidosis at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes mellitus in Malaysian children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a late presentation of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) in children. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical characteristics of type 1 DM at presentation so that appropriate actions can be taken to promote early diagnosis. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort review from a patient registry database. Data on all patients younger than 20 years old diagnosed with type 1 DM who had been registered with the Malaysian Diabetes in Children and Adolescents Registry (DiCARE) from its inception in 2006 until 2009 were analysed. RESULTS: The study included 490 children and adolescents, out of which 57.1% were female. The mean (SD) age at diagnosis was 7.5 (3.7) years, which increased from year 2000 to 2009 [6.6 (3.3) years to 9.6 (3.5) years; p = 0.001]. An increasing percentage of DKA at diagnosis was observed from year 2000 (54.5%) to year 2009 (66.7%), which remained high and leveled between 54.5% and 75.0%. DKA was more common in patients with normal weight (p = 0.002) with no significant association with age, gender, ethnicity and status of family history of diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSION: An increasing trend of age at diagnosis of patients with type 1 DM was observed. Besides that, proportion of DKA at diagnosis had remained high over the past decade. This study found that normal weight was associated with status of DKA, thus more detailed investigations are required to determine the risk factors for DKA.

Diabetic ketoacidosis at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes mellitus in Malaysian children and adolescents

Background: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a late presentation of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) in children. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical characteristics of type 1 DM at presentation so that appropriate actions can be taken to promote early diagnosis. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort review from a patient registry database. Data on all patients younger than 20 years old diagnosed with type 1 DM who had been registered with the Malaysian Diabetes in Children and Adolescents Registry (DiCARE) from its inception in 2006 until 2009 were analysed. Results: The study included 490 children and adolescents, out of which 57.1% were female. The mean (SD) age at diagnosis was 7.5 (3.7) years, which increased from year 2000 to 2009 [6.6 (3.3) years to 9.6 (3.5) years; p = 0.001]. An increasing percentage of DKA at diagnosis was observed from year 2000 (54.5%) to year 2009 (66.7%), which remained high and leveled between 54.5% and 75.0%. DKA was more common in patients with normal weight (p = 0.002) with no significant association with age, gender, ethnicity and status of family history of diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: An increasing trend of age at diagnosis of patients with type 1 DM was observed. Besides that, proportion of DKA at diagnosis had remained high over the past decade. This study found that normal weight was associated with status of DKA, thus more detailed investigations are required to determine the risk factors for DKA.