[Nutritional practices of young children]. / Les pratiques alimentaires des jeunes enfants.

AIM: To evaluate the nutritional practice in a region of Zaghouan, and to show determinants of inappropriate food behaviors. METHODS: A retrospective study included 160 children (aged from 3 to 5 years), from 4 kindergartens situated in the region of Zaghouan, during 2007. A questionnaire was drawn up, filled by parents or medical staff, concerning food behaviors. They are weight up and height. RESULTS: Sixty nine percents (69%) of children were breast fed, during 6-12 months in 50%. Diversified food is early before 3 months in 52% of children, and before 6 months in 70%. They are essentially flour in 53%. Vegetal food is introduced in a median age of 3.5 months, fruits at the age of 4 months. An overweight was found in 12. 5% of the cases, and an obesity in 9.5%. The majority (85.7%) was never breast fed persons, and have abnormal food habits in 91% of the cases: early diversified food rich in flour and low in essential elements. Later, the evaluation of food practice have many failures, exposing the children to obesity, related to caloric food, rich of sugar (87.5%), lipid (75%), low in fiber (37.5%) and eating in front of the television (75%). CONCLUSION: Children food behaviors depend on parents' habits, the medical board dietetics and the composition of industrial production.

[Cardiac involvement in spondylarthropathies]. / L'atteinte cardiaque au cours des spondylarthropathies.

Cardiac involvement is a real manifestation of spondylarthropathies and include specially aortic regurgitation and conduction troubles. We present a prospective open study of fifty patients with spondylarthropathy (responded to Amor criteria) in order to evaluate the frequency of cardiac involvement, to see its type and if we can evaluate a group of patients able to this complication. We have included forty-four men and six women with a mean age of 38 years. The disease evolve for 8.8 years in mean. Ag HLA B27 was present in 70% of the cases. Thirty patients have ankylosing spondylitis, although twenty have a secondary spondylarthropathy: psoriasic rheumatism (12 cases), inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn's disease (4 cases), RCH (three cases) and Fiessenger le Roy-Reiter syndrome in one case. All the patients have had a cardiac check up with research of clinical cardiac manifestation, thoracic chest, trans-thoracic echographi, Halter rhythmic done in five cases only. Cardiac involvement is found in five cases (10%): aortic regurgitation in 3 cases (6%) and mitral regurgitation in 2 cases (4%). These valvular disease are well tolerated.