Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a group of complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by repetitive and characteristic patterns of behavior and difficulties with social communication and interaction. In Bangladesh, autism in children is a significant burden of disease. Early identification of ASD could improve quality of life. The study has explored at the prevalence of ASD among rural community children aged between 18-36 months. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among the 5286 children aged between 18-36 months in a rural community. Household level data was collected using screening tool MCHAT. Primarily screening positive 66 children were invited for final diagnosis in a health camp. Diagnosis was made by different staging started from primary screening, followed by validation using MCHAT and flash card. Final diagnosis was made by the paediatric neurologists, child clinical psychologists and development therapist using diagnostic tools (DSM-IV & ADOS). Results: 04 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Prevalence of the ASD in rural community was found 0.75/1000 children. Among the four ASD cases three were boys and one was girl and age range was between 20- 30 months. Whereas, the highest prevalence rate found was for the cerebral palsy which was 5.6/1000 children and Developmental delay (2.6/1000) was the next to that. Conclusions: Age specific autism (18-36 months) in children is found higher in rural community of Bangladesh. In order to get more comprehensive information on autism in other age groups of children in rural community, further study is required. Early detection in rural community could help the policy makers to decentralization of health services among the ASD children in rural community.

Background. Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is a benign histiocytic proliferative disorder of unknown etiology. This rare condition commonly causes massive cervical lymphadenopathy. Intracranial RDD without any nodal involvement is extremely rare. Case Report. A young Bangladeshi male complained of bilateral complete blindness with left sided deafness for about three years. There was no lymphadenopathy. MRI and CT scan of brain suggested an inflammatory/neoplastic (?meningioma) lesion located at left parasellar region which extended frontally to encircle both optic nerves and also to left prepontine area. Histopathologically the lesion was diagnosed as RDD. The patient was treated with steroid and significant clinical improvement observed. Conclusion. The prognosis of intracranial RDD is not poor. It can be treated with surgery with or without corticosteroids, chemotherapy, and so forth. But as the condition is extremely rare and often misdiagnosed, the clinician, radiologist, and histopathologist should have a suspicion in their mind about the possibility of RDD.

This research was carried out to investigate the thrombolytic effects of the methanolic extracts of five Bangladeshi plants. Phytochemical metabolites of those plants have been identified to elucidate whether the plant-derived metabolites are linked with the thrombolytic effects. Potential computer aided models were adopted in this study to find out a structure-function correlation between the phytochemical constituents and thrombolytic effects using the secondary metabolites as ligands and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) as receptor for the best fit ligand-receptor interaction.

BackgroundMothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have reported a higher level of depression than mothers of children with other neurodevelopmental disorders in both developed and developing countries. Mothers are the lifetime caregivers of children with ASD, and a high burden of depression can negatively impact their ability to provide care. However, access to mental health services in primary care is limited, given the scarcity of qualified providers in Bangladesh.ObjectiveWe aim to pilot the feasibility of integrating mental health services for the mothers of children with ASD attending schools offering ASD care and improve skills of mothers for child care through a home-based training program.MethodsThe study will be conducted in two selected schools in Dhaka in Bangladesh that have been offering services for ASD for more than 10 years. A female psychologist will be deployed at the schools to offer nonpharmacological services for all mothers having a depressive episode. Referral for pharmacological treatment will be made at the discretion of supervising psychiatrists. An ASD special educator will provide training to the mothers for enhancing their child care skills at home on a monthly basis. The proposed intervention package will be implemented over a period of 4-6 months, and the feasibility of the intervention will be assessed through a pre- and postintervention evaluation by obtaining the perspectives of various stakeholders involved in the implementation of mental health services and maternal training. The primary outcome will include assessment of acceptability, adaptability, demand, practicality, implementation, and integration of the package intervention in the school settings. The secondary outcomes will include assessment of: 1) the prevalence of maternal depression; 2) children’s behavioral, social, and communication skills; and 3) the intervention participation costs incurred by institutions and families.ResultsBetween February and March 2017, 188 mothers of children with ASD were screened for depression following a written informed consent. Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (SCID-1) was administered to 66 mothers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 mothers and 8 various stakeholders. Between January-June 2017, the team finalized a draft psychosocial counseling module and a maternal training module. Between April-May 2017, mental health services were provided by psychologists to 41 mothers who attended the counseling centers at each school. Three special educators have been trained in June 2017 to initiate training of the participating mothers.ConclusionsThis is the first study of a mental health intervention for mothers of children with ASD to reduce their burden of depression and improve the outcomes of their children. The findings will inform the provision of services for children with ASD and their mothers in Bangladesh and similar settings.

Smart Autism is a cloud based, automated framework for autism screening and confirmation. In developing countries, due to lack of resources and expertise, autism is detected later than early ages which consequently delays timely intervention. Therefore a mobile, interactive and integrated framework is proposed to screen and confirm autism in different age group (0 to 17 years) with 3 layers of assessment process. Firstly, it screens by evaluating the responses of pictorial based screening questionnaire through mobile application. If autism is suspected, then in virtual assessment process, the child watches a video, its reaction is recorded and uploaded to the cloud for remote expert assessment. If autism is still suspected, then the child is referred to the nearest Autism Resource Center (ARC) for actual assessment. Analyzing these results, the integrated framework confirms autism automatically and reduce user's ARC visit. It is expected that the proposed framework will bring changes in autism diagnosis process and create awareness.

Iron deficiency is the most important but preventable nutritional problem in Bangladesh. Thyroid peroxidase, an iron containing enzyme, is essential for initial two steps of thyroid hormone synthesis which is a component of tissue iron. Tissue iron diminishes early in the course of iron deficiency. So thyroid hormone level may be altered in iron deficient patients. This case-control study was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) from July 2006 to June 2007. This study was done to find out the changes of thyroid hormonal activity in iron deficiency.In this study 72 subjects were selected from the out-patient department of the hospital. Patients with low serum ferritin level <12 mgm/L were selected as cases (n=36) and healthy persons with normal serum ferritin level were taken as controls. Serum ferritin, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT 4 ) and free triiodothyronine (FT 3 ) were measured in all study subjects. Values were expressed as mean ± SD. Unpaired 't' test and Pearson's correlation test were performed to see the level of significance and p value <0.05 was taken as significant. Serum ferritin level in cases and controls were 6.78±4.05 mgm/L and 79.04±28.08 mgm/L respectively which showed significant difference (P<0.0001).Serum TSH concentration in cases and controls were 3.32±1.54 mIU/L and 1.89±0.86 mIU/L respectively. Serum FT 4 concentration in cases and controls were 11.66±1.77 pmol/L and 13/10±1.36 pmol/L respectively and that of FT 3 were 3.00±0.68 and 3.31±0.61 pmol/L respectively. All showed significant difference between groups.Serum ferritin and Serum TSH showed significant negative correlation in controls whereas in cases they showed negative correlation which was not statistically significant.Both serum FT 4 and FT 3 revealed positive correlation with serum ferritin but that too was not significant statistically.Though the study failed to show any significant positive correlation between serum ferritin and thyroid hormones, lower level of thyroid status in iron deficient patients suggest that it could be a reflection of disturbed activities of iron dependent enzymes such as thyroid peroxidase that impairs thyroid hormone synthesis. However, a large scale study is recommeded to establish the fact. This study showed that there was significant difference in thyroid hormonal status between iron deficient patients and normal healthy persons. Therefore it can be concluded that iron deficiency may impair normal thyroid hormone status.

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Background: Children are most vulnerable to tubercular meningitis. Neuroimaging is an important initial investigation in tubercular meningitis. Objective: This study was done to describe the clinical profile, neuroimaging changes, and clinical outcome in children with tubercular meningitis. Methodology: This was an observational cohort study on children with tubercular meningitis, between January 2012 and June 2018. Tubercular meningitis was diagnosed on the basis of clinical criteria, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, neuroimaging, and response to antitubercular drug treatment. Preferably magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast was done. Result: Out of 79 pediatric patients, 17 patients were lost during follow-up; thus, a total of 62 patients were studied. Mean age at presentation was 7.040 (±3.99 SD) year, 51.6% children were male. Rural children were more affected. Twenty eight (45.2 patients had contact with a person with tuberculosis. Only 3 (4.8%) patients presented within 10 days of duration of illness. Most of the cases (67.7%) were in stage 2 at the time of diagnosis. The most common clinical feature was fever, seizure, and signs of meningeal irritation (all present in 12.9%). In neuroimaging most common findings were tuberculoma (50%), hydrocephalus (54.8%), and basal meningeal enhancement (33.8%). Regarding outcome, 6 (9.67%) patients expired and 47 (75%) patients had sequelae. The most common complications were hydrocephalus (30.64%) and intellectual disability (12.9 ). Hydrocephalus was the most common neuroimaging finding among the patients who expired (33%). Conclusion: Hydrocephalus is the most common neuroimaging finding. Normal neuroimaging is associated with good outcome whereas all the patients who died had abnormal neuroimaging.