[Uncinariasis in younger infants]. / Uncinariasis en el lactante menor.

In order to determine the main clinical and laboratory manifestations associated with the infestation by an uncinaria during the first year of life, 42 children were studied from a group hospitalized between the years 1980 and 1985 in whom the main diagnosis at their time of leave from the hospital was parasitosis. Over 31 patients (74%) showed some degree of malnutrition, and severe in 24 of them (57% of the total). Clinical manifestations were mainly related to anemia (paleness, lack of air) and active intestinal bleeding (enterorrhagia, melena). Among the laboratory findings, 80% of the patients were shown to have anemia and in 24% of them, their hemoglobin levels were less than 5 g/dL, in more than half the anemia was normocytic normochromic. Also included are particularities concerning uncinariasis in the breast-feeding infant and some differences with the infection in the adult.

[Capacity of opsonic recognition of polymorphonuclear neutrophils in malnourished children]. / Capacidad de reconocimiento opsónico de los neutrófilos polimorfonucleares de niños desnutridos.

The opsonic recognition capacity of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) was evaluated in 19 noninfected children (13 eutrophic and 6 malnourished) and 22 infected children (10 eutrophic and 12 malnourished) by determining the rosette-formation capacity of the PMNs with sheep erythrocytes. After evaluating the percentage of rosette-forming neutrophils (RFN), we did not observe significant differences between the PMNs from eutrophic children and those from noninfected malnourished children (70.2 +/- 5% vs 67 +/- 3% respectively, P greater than 0.5). In contrast, the opsonic recognition capacity of PMNs from children with acute bacterial infections was significantly lower in the eutrophic (54.4 +/- 5.8%, P less than 0.05) and even more accentuated in the malnourished children (42.8 +/- 5%, P less than 0.01) when compared to the noninfected children. These results indicate that the opsonic recognition capacity of the PMNs decreases during bacterial infections. Due to the critical role of the PMNs as a mechanism of defense against infection, the greater decrease of the opsonic recognition capacity of the PMNs observed in infected malnourished children could be yet another explanation for the greater morbidity and mortality from the infectious processes observed in malnourished children.