Assessment of Preclinical Vitamin A Deficiency in Children with Persistent Diarrhea

Spinach and Carrots

“…It is well known that vitamin A deficiency can result in visual malfunctions such as night blindness and xerophthalmia [15], and it can reduce immune responsiveness [16], causing an increased incidence and/or severity of respira tory infections, gastrointestinal infections [17], and measles [18]. On the other hand, it is less well known that excessive intakes of vitamin A can result in bone mineral loss [19,20], terato genicity [21], or liver damage [22].…”

Nutritional Management of Persistent Diarrhea in Childhood: A Perspective from the Developing World

“…Several studies have also emphasized the importance of zinc deficiency in protein energy malnutrition (108,182,183), and a limited number of studies of zinc supplementation in PD have indicated improved nutritional and diarrheal outcome (184,185). Although and vitamin A deficiency has been convincingly shown to be associated with increased morbidity and mortality in childhood (186,187) and low vitamin A levels have been demonstrated in children with PD (188), studies of vitamin A supplementation in diarrheal disorders (189,190) have yielded mixed results. A recent study of vitamin A supplementation has instead revealed increased rates of diarrheal morbidity (191).…”