There is evidence for premature atherosclerosis and systemic arterial stiffening during follow-up of children with Kawasaki disease (KD) and coronary artery abnormalities (CAA). Moreover, patients with KD may also have subclinical myocardial involvement and inhomogeneous ventricular repolarization. The inhomogeneous ventricular repolarization manifests as increased QT dispersion on electrocardiography. There is a paucity of studies in endothelial dysfunction and QT dispersion in children with KD and transient CAA. Twenty children with KD and transient CAA were studied at least 1 year after resolution of CAA. Mean follow-up period between KD onset and enrolment in the study was 53.7 months. Twenty age and sex-matched controls were enrolled. High-resolution B-mode ultrasonography was used to analyze brachial artery dilatation in response to reactive hyperemia (cases and controls) and sublingual nitroglycerine (cases only). Carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) and stiffness index were calculated. The difference between maximum and minimum QTc intervals on 12 lead electrocardiogram was calculated as QTc dispersion (QTcd). No statistically significant difference was noted in percent flow-mediated dilatation of brachial arteries in response to reactive hyperemia between cases (13.31 ± 10.41%) and controls (12.86 ± 7.09%). Sublingual nitroglycerine-mediated dilatation in children with KD was 14.88 ± 12.03%. Mean cIMT was similar in cases (0.036 ± 0.015 cm) and controls (0.035 ± 0.076 cm; p = 0.791). No statistically significant difference between groups was observed in mean QTcd values (0.057 ± 0.018 s vs. 0.059 ± 0.015 s in controls, p = 0.785). No evidence of significant endothelial dysfunction or increased QT dispersion in patients with KD and transient coronary artery abnormalities was found in our cohort when studied at a mean follow-up of 53.7 months. This is reassuring, and indicates that risk of subclinical atherosclerosis and myocarditis in a subset of children with KD and transient coronary artery abnormalities is not significant.
Background: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is an aggressive malignancy. Its outcome has improved over the past decades. Although it accounts for 8%–10% of all childhood cancers, very less information about its clinical presentation and outcomes is available from India. Our objective was to study the clinical presentation and outcomes in children (<15 years) with NHL at our center. Methodology: We retrospectively analyzed 26 children diagnosed with NHL at our center from August 2008 to June 2014 and followed them up to May 2017. Results: The median age at the time of diagnosis was 7.7 years (2.5–13 years). Abdominal distension and an abdominal lump were the most common presenting features occurring in 75%, followed by fever (73.8%) and weight loss (46.2%). Most patients had advanced-stage (Stage III/IV, 92.3%) disease at presentation. The primary presentation was extranodal in 57.7%, nodal in 26.9%, and combined in 15.4%. Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) was the most common subtype (46.2%), followed by T-lymphoblastic lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma. Three patients did not take treatment. The median follow-up of patients was 48 months (36–99 months). Nineteen patients achieved remission and four had progressive disease. Significantly better event-free survival (EFS) was found with younger age and lower stage of presentation. The EFS did not significantly differ with sex, group of disease, lactate dehydrogenase levels, and presenting features. Conclusions: Our cohort of patients with NHL showed characteristics similar to those reported from other developing countries. NHL occurred at a younger age, with a higher incidence of BL. The outcome for patients aged >10 years was poor. The outcome of NHL was comparable to that of other centers in the world.
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