Migraine is a common health problem among school children in Denizli urban area and it often goes underdiagnosed.

The adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa had significant structural and functional cardiac abnormalities in comparison to the control group. All these abnormalities were reversible except low R wave amplitude in V6.

To compare the clinical and laboratory findings of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) and with macrophage activating syndrome due to systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA-MAS) on real-life data. Patients diagnosed with MIS-C, KD, and sJIA-MAS from 12 different centers in Turkey who were followed for at least 6 months were included in the study. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory findings of all patients were analyzed. A total of 154 MIS-C, 59 KD, and 31 sJIA-MAS patients were included. The median age of patients with MIS-C were higher than those with KD while lower than those with sJIA-MAS (8.2, 3, 12 years, respectively). Myalgia (39.6%), cardiac (50.6%), gastrointestinal (72.7%), and neurological (22.1%) involvements were more common in patients with MIS-C compared to others. MIS-C patients had lower levels of lymphocyte (950 vs 1700 cells/µl) and thrombocyte (173,000 vs 355,000 cells/µl) counts and higher pro-BNP (1108 vs 55 pg/ml) levels than KD. Ferritin levels were higher in patients with MIS-C compared to patients with KD while they were lower than patients with sJIA-MAS (440, 170, 10,442 ng/ml, respectively). Patients with MIS-C had a shorter duration of hospitalization than sJIA-MAS ( p = 0.02) while they required intensive care unit admission more frequently (55 vs 8 patients, p < 0.001). The median MAS/sJIA score of MIS-C patients was − 1.64 (− 5.23 to 9.68) and the median MAS/sJIA score of sJIA-MAS patients was −2.81 ([− 3.79] to [− 1.27]). MIS-C patients displayed certain differences in clinical and laboratory features when compared to KD and sJIA-MAS. Definition of the differences and similarities between MIS-C and the other intense inflammatory syndromes of childhood such as KD and MAS will help the clinicians while making timely diagnosis.

Cardiac complications are considered to be the primary cause of death in patients with b thalassaemia major. QT dispersion is a marker variability of ventricular repolarization and is elevated in various high risk groups of patients. This study was carried out in patients with b thalassaemia major to evaluate QT dispersion and to investigate the relationship between QT dispersion and body iron load. Sixty-two b thalassaemia major patients were enrolled into the study. The average serum ferritin levels and liver iron concentration was assessed. For each patient, QTQTc intervals and QT-QTc dispersions were calculated and V1S and V5R were measured. All the subjects underwent two-dimensional M mode echocardiogram and Doppler study. LVMI was found higher in thalassaemia major patients compared to control group. b thalassaemia major patients showed significantly higher mean QT, QTc, QTd, and QTcd values compared to the control group. The mean V5R and V1S amplitudes were also higher in b thalassaemia major patients. There was a positive correlation between LVMI and QTc, QTd and QTcd. However, there was no significant correlation between QT dispersion and serum ferritin and liver iron concentration. Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to assess the prognostic significance of these findings. Am. J. Hematol. 81:901-906, 2006. V V C 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The objectives of this study were to determine genotypic and allelic frequencies of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) gene -173 G/C polymorphism in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and to evaluate the association of the MIF -173 C allele with the outcome of JRA. Genomic DNA was collected from 67 JRA patients and 153 healthy individuals. To evaluate the association of the MIF -173 polymorphism with the outcome, we analyzed the data concerning the treatment regimen, duration of glucocorticoid treatment, score on the childhood health assessment questionnaire (C-HAQ) and the number of joints with active arthritis. Nonsignificant differences were observed between the study and control groups in the distribution of genotype and allele frequencies of the MIF gene -173 G/C polymorphism. In JRA patients, carrying a MIF -173 C allele, the number of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs required for the treatment was more, the duration of glucocorticoid treatment was significantly longer, and at the last visits the C-HAQ scores and the number of joints with active arthritis were significantly higher. MIF gene -173 C allele frequency did not differ between the controls and JRA patients. MIF -173 C allele did not confer increased susceptibility to JRA in our study group. Carriage of the MIF -173 C allele was found to be a strong predictor of poor outcome in all types of JRA.