Iron status and Helicobacter pylori infection in symptomatic children: an international multi-centered study

Objective:Iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) are global major public health problems, particularly in developing countries. Whilst an association between H. pylori infection and ID/IDA has been proposed in the literature, currently there is no consensus. We studied the effects of H. pylori infection on ID/IDA in a cohort of children undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for upper abdominal pain in two developing and one developed country.Methods:In total 311 children (mean age 10.7±3.2 years) from Latin America - Belo Horizonte/Brazil (n = 125), Santiago/Chile (n = 105) - and London/UK (n = 81), were studied. Gastric and duodenal biopsies were obtained for evaluation of histology and H. pylori status and blood samples for parameters of ID/IDA.Results:The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 27.7% being significantly higher (p<0.001) in Latin America (35%) than in UK (7%). Multiple linear regression models revealed H. pylori infection as a significant predictor of low ferritin and haemoglobin concentrations in children from Latin-America. A negative correlation was observed between MCV (r = -0.26; p = 0.01) and MCH (r = -0.27; p = 0.01) values and the degree of antral chronic inflammation, and between MCH and the degree of corpus chronic (r = -0.29, p = 0.008) and active (r = -0.27, p = 0.002) inflammation.Conclusions:This study demonstrates that H. pylori infection in children influences the serum ferritin and haemoglobin concentrations, markers of early depletion of iron stores and anaemia respectively

Clinical course and prognostic factors of children with Burkitt's lymphoma in a developing country: the experience of a single centre in Brazil

OBJECTIVE: Burkitt's lymphoma is the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in children. The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical course and prognostic factors of children and adolescents with Burkitt's lymphoma treated in the Hematology Unit of Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was made of 50 consecutive cases of children and adolescents aged 16 years or less with Burkitt's lymphoma admitted between January 1981 and December 2007. Prognostic factors associated with death were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the two-tailed log-rank test. RESULTS: The median age at diagnosis was 4.7 years. Most patients had abdominal tumors (66.7%) and advanced disease (68.9%) at diagnosis. Thirty-eight patients (84.4%) achieved complete clinical remission and 33 (73.3%) were alive at the first remission. Twelve children (26.7%) died. The median follow-up was 35 months with the probability of overall survival being 73% (89.2% and 35.7% for patients with uric acid 7.0 mg/dL, respectively - p-value 7 mg/dL

Histological comparison of antral (n = 85) and corpus (n = 83) gastric mucosa of <i>H. pylori (HP)</i>-positive children and antral (n = 202) and corpus (n = 214) gastric mucosa of <i>H. pylori</i>-negative children.^*.

*<p>Twenty-four antral and 13 corpus gastric biopsy specimens were deemed to be inadequate for histology assessment. n, number.</p

Multiple linear regression models including ferritin or haemoglobin as dependent variables and age, gender, country of birth and <i>H. pylori</i> infection as independent variables in children from United Kingdom, Chile and Brazil (n = 311).

<p>Multiple linear regression models including ferritin or haemoglobin as dependent variables and age, gender, country of birth and <i>H. pylori</i> infection as independent variables in children from United Kingdom, Chile and Brazil (n = 311).</p

Comparison of the iron deficiency/iron deficiency anaemia parameters between <i>H. pylori</i>-positive (n = 86) and negative (n = 225) children from Brazil, Chile and United Kingdom.

*<p>obtained by dividing the serum iron concentration by the total iron binding capacity;</p><p>SD, standard deviation; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MCH, mean corpuscular haemoglobin.</p

Multiple linear regression models including ferritin or haemoglobin as dependent variables and age, gender and <i>H. pylori</i> (HP) infection as independent variables in children from United Kingdom (n = 81), Chile (n = 105) and Brazil (n = 125).

<p>Multiple linear regression models including ferritin or haemoglobin as dependent variables and age, gender and <i>H. pylori</i> (HP) infection as independent variables in children from United Kingdom (n = 81), Chile (n = 105) and Brazil (n = 125).</p

Neotropical freshwater fisheries : A dataset of occurrence and abundance of freshwater fishes in the Neotropics

The Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large-scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southern limits in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. We compiled 185,787 distribution records, with unique georeferenced coordinates, for the 4225 species, represented by occurrence and abundance data. The number of species for the most numerous orders are as follows: Characiformes (1289), Siluriformes (1384), Cichliformes (354), Cyprinodontiformes (245), and Gymnotiformes (135). The most recorded species was the characid Astyanax fasciatus (4696 records). We registered 116,802 distribution records for native species, compared to 1802 distribution records for nonnative species. The main aim of the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set was to make these occurrence and abundance data accessible for international researchers to develop ecological and macroecological studies, from local to regional scales, with focal fish species, families, or orders. We anticipate that the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set will be valuable for studies on a wide range of ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, fishery pressure, the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and the impacts of species invasion and climate change. There are no copyright restrictions on the data, and please cite this data paper when using the data in publications