Anaemia, iron deficiency and vitamin A status among school-aged children in rural Kazakhstan.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of anaemia and iron deficiency and vitamin A status among school-aged children in rural Kazakhstan and identify factors associated with anaemia in this population. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design. SETTING: School-aged children in rural Kazakhstan. SUBJECTS: Socio-economic and anthropometric information was collected from 159 school-aged children living in the Kzyl-Orda region of Kazakhstan. Blood samples were collected and the concentrations of haemoglobin (Hb), serum iron, serum ferritin (SF), erythrocyte protoporphyrin (EP), serum retinol and beta-carotene, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation (TS) and other haematological indices were measured. RESULTS: Among the 159 children, the prevalence of anaemia and iron deficiency defined by the multiple criteria model (SF, TS and EP) was 27% and 13%, respectively. Nine per cent had iron-deficiency anaemia and 21% had serum retinol value < 1.05 micromol l(-1). Mean SF and serum iron concentrations and TS were significantly lower in anaemic children than in their non-anaemic peers, while TIBC and EP were significantly higher in children with anaemia. Hb was significantly correlated with serum iron and retinol concentrations. Serum retinol and SF concentrations and mean corpuscular volume were significantly correlated with Hb by multiple regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Anaemia among school-aged children in rural Kazakhstan appears to be related to iron indices and vitamin A status

Clinical diagostic indicators of renal and bone damage in rats intramuscularly injected with depleted uranium

The toxic effects and changes in biochemical markers related to kidney and bone in depleted uranium (DU) injected rats were examined in order to clarify the relation between the clinical biochemical markers and the degree of damage in these organs. Male Wistar rats were received a single injection in the femoral muscles with 0.2, 1.0 or 2.0 mg/kg of DU which was dissolved in nitric acid solution adjusted to pH3.2, for comparison with the nitric acid solution injected and control groups. Urine and feces were collected periodically over a 24 hr. period. Thereafter, the rats were killed at 28 days after DU injection. The body weights of the DU-injected groups decreased dose-dependently for the first 3-7 days, and then began to increase. The DU concentrations in the urine and feces decreased rapidly within 3-7 days after DU injection. Urinary N-acetyl-b-_-glucosaminidase (NAG)/creatinine peaked at the third day after DU injection, with a high correlation to the injected DU doses. There were high correlations among the injected DU doses, DU concentrations in the kidney, and urinary NAG/creatinine values that were obtained at 28 days, respectively. The blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine in the serum also showed a high correlation with the DU-injected doses. The results indicated that urinary NAG/creatinine, BUN and creatinine in serum were useful indicators to diagnose the renal damage by DU as well as to estimate the DU intake and concentration in the kidney when the intake is over 2mg/kg DU. The total bone mineral density of the proximal metaphysis of the tibia decreased in the 2 mg/kg DU group. In addition, alterations of the bone trabecular structure by inhibiting bone formation and promoting bone resorption were observed by bone histomorphomtery. The bone biochemical markers osteocalcin, tartrate-resistance acid phosphatase (TRAP), pyridinoline, and rat-parathyroid hormone (PTH) increased in all the DU injected groups, indicating that these markers were useful as sensitive indicators for diagnosing bone damage, even if the DU-injected dose is low

Temperature dependence of magnetic first-order-reversal-curves for hollow Fe3O4 submicron particles

We report results of temperature dependence of first-order-reversal curves (FORCs) for hollow submicron particles with different outer diameter ranging from 400 to 700 nm. At low temperatures below the Verwey transition temperature, Tv, the FORC distribution exhibits a butterfly-like feature, associated with two pronounced FORC peaks, indicating the formation of a vortex structure for hollow Fe3O4 submicron particles. With increasing temperature from T = 10 K, the intensity of the two peaks steeply decreases and the peaks merge at T ∼ 130 K close to Tv. The results suggest a change of stability of the vortex state with temperature and were explained as due to a change of magnetic anisotropy associated with a structural transition at Tv