The long-term effects of kwashiorkor on the electroencephalogram were assessed by means of computer analysis techniques. The experimental group, consisting of 30 black children, 6 to 12 years old, hospitalized for the treatment of kwashiorkor during the first 27 months of life, was age-matched with three control groups. These were a group of siblings and of yardmates, neither of whom had been exposed to acute infantile malnutrition, and a very high socioeconomic group of white children. The results revealed significantly less alpha activity and more slow-wave activity in the electroencephalogram of the kwashiokor group than in those of the control groups. These findings confirmed previous results based on visual analysis procedures.
(1975). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 50, 220. Leucocyte function in children with kwashiorkor. A study of leucocyte response to infection, polymorphonuclear leucocyte chemotaxis and bactericidal activity, and nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction in children with kwashiorkor was undertaken and compared with a control group. The results show that total leucocyte counts were depressed in children with kwashiorkor, and lymphopenia was not infrequent. NBT reduction was normal. Abnormal polymorphonuclear leucocyte chemotaxis and bactericidal activity, though frequently found in children with kwashiorkor, was shown to be dependent on infection and not on protein depletion per se. Therefore, apart from some impairment of leucocyte mobilization in the presence of infection, the quality of polymorphonuclear function, as determined by the above techniques, appears to be normal in kwashiorkor.
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