The present study investigates the effect of iron supplementation on measures of school performance among 78 iron-deficient anemic and 41 nonanemic children in an economically deprived rural area in Central Java, Indonesia. All the subjects were treated for ancylostomiasis before iron supplementation. They were randomly assigned to either an iron or placebo group. Hematological and behavioral measurements were obtained immediately before (T1) and after (T2) the iron and placebo treatments. Iron treatment for a 3-mo period resulted in substantive increases in mean Hgb, Hct, and transferrin saturation among the iron-deficient anemic children. Furthermore, changes in the iron status of iron-deficient anemic children were associated with significant changes in the school achievement test scores of iron-deficient anemic children. T2 evaluation of achievement test scores indicated that the difference between iron-treated anemic and nonanemic children was still statistically significant. However, when T1 scores were entered as a covariate, iron-deficient anemic subjects treated with iron obtained significantly higher delta achievement scores. Findings from the present study indicate that iron supplementation among iron-deficient anemic children benefits learning processes as measured by the school achievement test scores.
The effects of oral iron supplementation on blood iron levels and learning achievement in 130 rural Indonesian school children were assessed in this double-blind study. The children were classified into anemic and nonanemic groups according to their initial hemoglobin and transferrin saturation levels and were randomly assigned to either iron or placebo treatment for 3 mo. Hematological, anthropometric, and learning-achievement data were collected before (T1) and after (T2) the treatment period and 3 mo later. The means and standard deviations suggest that supplementation with 10 mg ferrous sulfate per kilogram body weight per day for 3 mo resulted in an apparent improvement in anemic subjects' hematological status and learning-achievement scores. No tests of statistical comparisons are reported.
The effect of oral iron supplementation on blood Fe levels and physical growth in 119 rural Indonesian school children was assessed in this double-blind study. The children were classified into anemic and normal groups according to their initial hemoglobin and transferrin saturation levels and were randomly assigned to either Fe or placebo treatment for 12 wk. Hematological, anthropometric, and morbidity data were collected before and after the treatment period. Before treatment, anemic subjects were smaller and had higher morbidity than normal subjects. Treatment with 10 mg ferrous sulfate.kg-1.d-1 for 12 wk resulted in a significant improvement in anemic subjects' hematological status, growth velocity, and level or morbidity.
C-reactive protein is one of the most widely used indicators of the response of acute-phase proteins. The measurement of C-reactive protein in dengue, however, is clinically not useful, because of marginally elevated levels and absent association with disease severity. The prototypic long pentraxin, pentraxin 3, is an acute phase protein that is structurally related but distinct from C-reactive protein which has proven to correlate with the severity of bacterial infection in critically ill patients. The potential involvement of pentraxin 3 in dengue and its aptitude to predict more severe disease or poor clinical outcome has not been studied previously. We therefore measured pentraxin 3 plasma levels in 44 dengue virus infected patients. Pentraxin 3 levels were strikingly higher when compared to C-reactive protein levels, with highest pentraxin 3 values observed in the first 7 days after the onset of symptoms. Median pentraxin 3 levels at admission and peak levels during follow up were higher in patients suffering from dengue shock syndrome (at admission: 119.3 ng/ml [interquartile range 61.8--188.7], peak values during follow up: 147.9 ng/ml [interquartile range 85.7--204.3]) compared to levels found in patients with dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (at admission: 59.0 ng/ml [interquartile range 28.6--100.3], P=0.040; peak values during follow up: 80.8 ng/ml [interquartile range 36.1--168.1], P=0.020). Our results indicate that pentraxin 3 seems to be a marker of infection better than C-reactive protein in dengue. The role of pentraxin 3 in the pathogenesis of dengue and its potential as an early prognostic indicator of disease severity needs further assessment.
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