Relationship between Painful Crisis and Serum Zinc Level in Children with Sickle Cell Anaemia

Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is associated with zinc deficiency; zinc supplementation may ameliorate some of its clinical manifestations including the relief of painful crisis. Subjects and Methods. Serum zinc levels were determined in 71 children with SCA and painful crisis and in equal numbers in steady state. Seventy-one children with AA genotype acted as controls. Qualitative assessment of zinc content of 24-hour dietary recall and the last meal consumed before blood was drawn was taken. Serum zinc was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Haemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume (PCV) were determined using standard methods. Results. The mean serum zinc concentration in the study was less than international reference range. The controls had significantly higher serum zinc concentrations than the SCA group (42.7 ± 13.6 versus 32.3 ± 14.0 μg/dL, P < .000); this difference was due to the significantly lower values of serum zinc in SCA with painful crisis compared with the remaining two groups F = 30.9, P<.000. There was a positive correlation between serum zinc and haemoglobin concentration only in the control group (r = 0.4; P = .001). Conclusion. The serum zinc levels in this study were low. Painful crisis in SCA may exert greater demand for zinc utilization in children with SCA thereby resulting in lower serum levels

T-Lymphocyte Subsets in Apparently Healthy Nigerian Children

Population studies showed that there are differences in T-lymphocytes subpopulation of normal children in different regions, and reference values in an area might be different from another. This study compared the values in our population with CDC and WHO reference values. Blood samples from 279 healthy, HIV-negative children <12 years of age were analysed for complete blood count, CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ counts and percentages. Except for CD8%, mean values for all parameters measured significantly decreased with age. CD4+ counts were higher in females than males, P < .05. Using the WHO criteria, 15.9% of subjects had low total lymphocyte count and 20.6% had low CD4 count. Children <3 years had median CD4% lower than WHO normal values. Our median CD4+ counts correlated with CDC values. Values used by WHO in infants are higher than ours. We suggest that our children be assessed using CDC reference values which correlate with ours

Human immunodeficiency virus status in malnourished children seen at Lagos.

INTRODUCTION:Human immunodeficiency virus and protein energy malnutrition are still prevalent in Nigeria and the occurrence of the two conditions together confers a poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to determine the current categories of malnutrition amongst under-5 children in Lagos, document their HIV status and determine any peculiarities in the clinical features, haematological and some biochemical profile in these children. METHODS:The study was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Paediatric departments of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the Massey Street Children's Hospital, both in Lagos, over a 6-month period. All the subjects had anthropometry, HIV testing, full blood count and serum proteins done. The factors associated with HIV status were determined with the logistic regression analysis. RESULTS:Two hundred and fourteen (214) malnourished children ≤5 years, including 25 (11.7%) with HIV were recruited in the study. Among the study participants, 150 (70.1%) and 54 (29.9%) had moderate and severe malnutrition, respectively. Fever, cough and diarrhea were the most common symptoms in the study participants. The haematological indices were comparable in the two groups, the serum globulin levels though higher in the HIV infected group was not statistically significantly different from the non-infected group.(p = 0.66). None of the factors explored on multivariate analysis was able to predict the occurrence of the infection in this cohort. CONCLUSION:Malnourished children remain a high risk group for HIV infection and the prevalence of the infection obtained in this group of children is still unacceptably high. Discriminatory features between malnutrition and HIV remains difficult. The presence of hyperglobulinaemia on laboratory analysis in a malnourished child may heighten the suspicion of possible underlying associated HIV infection. Screening of malnourished children for HIV infection and further longitudinal studies on malnourished children with HIV is advocated