Multicenter study conducted in 15 hospitals including 101 COVID-19 pediatric inpatients aiming to describe associated gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations. GI symptoms were present in 57% and were the first manifestation in 14%. Adjusted by confounding factors, those with GI symptoms had higher risk of pediatric intensive care unit admission. GI symptoms are predictive of severity in COVID-19 children admitted to hospitals.
This is the first study attempting to establish time to improve after commencing the diet elimination. Almost all children in this study improved within 4 weeks of following the elimination diet, under dietary supervision.
Background/Objectives
The paediatric reference range of fecal calprotectin (FC) has not been decisively established and previous studies show a wide within-age variability, suggesting that other factors like anthropometric data or type of feeding can influence FC. Our aims were to establish the normal levels of FC in healthy children grouped by age and analyze whether sex, gestational age, birth weight, type of delivery, type of feeding, or anthropometric data influence FC values.
Methods
This multicentre, cross-sectional, and observational study enrolled healthy donors under 18 years of age who attended their Primary Health Care Centre for their routine Healthy Child Program visits. The exclusion criteria were: (i) immunodeficiency, (ii) autoimmune or (iii) gastrointestinal disease; (iv) medication usage; (v) gastrointestinal symptoms; or (vi) positive finding in the microbiological study.
Results
We enrolled 395 subjects, mean age was 4.2 years (range 3 days to 16.9 years), and 204 were male. The median FC was 77.0 mcg/g (interquartile range 246). A negative correlation between age and FC was observed (Spearman’s rho = −0.603, P<0.01), and none of the other factors analyzed were found to influence FC levels.
Conclusions
Normal FC values in healthy children (particularly in infants) are higher than those considered to be altered in adults and show a negative correlation with age. It is necessary to reconsider the upper limits of FC levels for paediatric patients according to age, with further studies required to determine other factors that influence FC during infancy.
Background: Some studies have suggested an association between the month of birth and risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), related to environmental factors, mainly sun exposure and maternal vitamin D levels. Few studies have been conducted in Southern Europe countries. Madrid has a continental climate with considerable variation of sun hours between winter and summer, so it may be relevant to study this relationship. Methods: MS patients, born between 1932 and 2003, 1,335 of them from our database between 2004 and 2015, were analysed. The weighted average number of births per month in Madrid from 1996 and 2012 (n = 1,098,774) was considered the control population. The month and season of birth were analysed using chi-square, Hewitt's and Roberson's seasonality tests. Results: Birth rate increased in June, July, and September, and decreased in November, January, and February. Births were 29% more frequent in summer (July-September) than in winter (January-March), with a ratio of 0.79. Hewitt's test for seasonality gave a rank sum of 53 between May and October (p = 0.12). Rogerson's variation was applied to 3-, 4-, and 5-month periods. Substantial differences were noted in the 5-month periods (k = 5), although the largest rank sum (June-October) was not significant (p = 0.09). Conclusion: Our analysis seemed to suggest that pre-natal sun exposure may have an influence on the incidence of MS, most likely in combination with other environmental or genetic factors.
The records of 15 years of paediatric necropsies in the Department of Pathology of the Hospital San Ignacio in Bogota were reviewed and the results classified according to the various types of genetic pathology. It is shown that out of 1463 paediatric necropsies, 377 (25-8%) had either a congenital defect or a disease considered as genetic to some extent. Simple Mendelian diseases and chromosomal disorders account together for more than 5% of the total deaths. When the pathologies with a complex genetic contribution to the aetiology are also taken into account, the figure rises to more than 20%. Overall, the study shows that the burden of genetic pathology is also important in countries, like Colombia, where other causes of death have traditionally been the main concern of public health measures.
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