Palm oil and pyrantel as child nutrition mass interventions in Papua New Guinea.

Two mass interventions in the local low energy-density diet were evaluated for safety, acceptability and nutritional efficacy in a four-group matched study of 896 Papua New Guinea children aged 12-54 months. A single dose of 125 mg of pyrantel pamoate and an 800 mg supply of red palm oil were given monthly at the regular child health clinics. Both were safe and highly accepted. Children given palm oil gained more weight than controls (P less than .05) in the first three study months, confirming a pilot study. However, weight gain after one year was 94% of standard, with no differences in anthropometry, morbidity or mortality between groups. The lack of demonstrable differences at one year is attributed to secular improvement in control group nutrition and to diffusion of palm oil supplies within the family. While pyrantel was an effective antihelminthic, further study is needed to define the nutritional role of mass worm treatment. Palm oil was economical and culturally popular; thus it should be an ideal import substitution. It is clinically useful where diets are of low energy-density. However, any simultaneous demonstration of its nutritional safety, acceptability as a sustained mass intervention must be carried out in an area where major child growth deficits remain and expropriation of the oil by other household members can be controlled.

[Comparative biochemical studies in asymptomatic hyperuricemia and manifest gout with special reference to renal change]. / Vergleichende biochemische Untersuchungen bei asymptomatischer Hyperurkämie und manifester Gicht unter besonderer Berücksichtgung renaler Veränderungen.

It is reported on results of comparative biochemical examinations in asymptomatic hyperuricaemia and manifest gout. Restriction of the urate clearance of the kidney, which could be proved also in young patients with asymptomatic hyperuricaemia, and a disturbance of the lipid metabolism which appeared in most cases are discussed from the pathogenetic point of view, in which cases the hyperlipoproteinaemia is regarded as a possible partial pathogenetic factor. For the separation of serum and urine the polyacrylamide gel-pore gradient electrophoresis was used. Using a modifiable concentration gradient this method is superior to the usual disc electrophoresis. The distribution pattern of the types of haptoglobin established by serum separation showed clear deviations from the normal distribution in hyperuricaemia or manifest gout and may be explained as a reference to the influence of genetic factors. By parallel performed electrophoretic separation of serum and urine a microproteinuria could be established and differentiated between glomerular and tubular proteinuria which is regarded as an early symptom of renal changes and was already present in 9 of 20 young patients with asymptomatic hyperuricaemia. These findings emphasize the necessity of an early renal diagnostics.