Aim: To assess iron nutrition during the first 6 months of life of infants born to iron supplemented mothers during pregnancy.
Subjects and Methods:In a supplementation trial of iron plus or without zinc we followed up a group of 219 infants, during the first 6 months of life, born to iron supplemented mothers. Changes in hemoglobin (Hb) and, serum ferritin (SF) are presented. Inclusion criteria were birth at term with adequate weight for gestational age, healthy and exclusively breastfed.. Mothers received during pregnancy iron supplement (Group Aϭ103) or Iron ϩ zinc (Group Bϭ116).Results: No differences in health and nutrition status or SES indicators by group of supplementation were demonstrated. Mean Hb concentration at birth was 180.6 g/L in group A and 177.8 g/L in group B. At 3 months of age, mean Hb was 102.0 g/L and, 103.8 g/L and, at 6 months of age was 105.2 g/L and, 105.8 g/L, respectively (NS). Median SF at birth was 152.0 ug/L (group A) and 177.4 ug/L (group B), at 3 months 166.0 ug/L and 134.6 ug/L (NS) and, at 6 months this was 49.3 ug/L and, 43.3 ug/L. Hb at 3 months correlated with SF at birth (pϭ0.018). At 3 months there was no difference in SF by group of supplementation, SF correlated with SF at birth; values were higher in girls than boys (p Ͻ0.01). At 6 months of age, Hb correlated with Hb at 3 month (pϭ0.03) and with maternal education (controlling for Hb at 3 months) pϭ0.002. At 6 months of age 75% infants were exclusively breastfed, all had weight and height adequate for age and 62% had Hb Ͻ 110 g/L. Hemoglobin percentiles by age and sex are presented and related variables and anemia control strategies in infancy are discussed.Supported by USAID/OHN, Cooperative Agreement DAN-5116-8051-00
DIAGNOSTIC USEFULNESS OF FECAL LEUKOCYTES IN CHILDREN WITH ACUTE DIARRHEACarreazo NY, Silva DM, Huicho L, Asmat K, de la Cruz P, Bada C. Hospital Emergencias Pediátricas. Lima Perú. Aim: To assess the diagnostic usefulness of fecal leukocytes for diagnosis of inflammatory diarrhea in children attending a pediatric emergency hospital.Methods: We reviewed retrospectively the clinical records of children aged 0 through 18 years old who had attended the Hospital de Emergencias Pediátricas, Lima, Peru, from January through September 2002. All those cases in which fecal leukocytes and microbiological assessments had been requested were eligible. We categorized the counts of fecal leukocytes in the following categories:Results and discussion: Overall, 699 fecal samples were examined to quantitate fecal leukocytes; of these, 522 also underwent stool cultures. Cultures were positive in 223 patients (43%) and 299 resulted negative. A latex agglutination test for rotavirus was performed in 225 samples, and 87 were positive (38.6%). In general, the diagnostic usefulness of fecal leukocyte counts was low, except for the extremes of the spectrum (less than 5 leukocytes/hpf and more than 100 leukocytes/hpf). In the first case, sensitivity was 93%, LRϩ was 1.3 and LR-was 0.25. This means that a positive result for the...