Vitamin D Deficiency in Children and Adolescents

Objective Vitamin D deficiency is an important health problem in both developed and developing countries. Recent reports on the extraskeletal effects of vitamin D have led to increased interest in prevalence studies on states of deficiency/insufficiency of vitamin D. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in children and adolescents residing in Ankara, Turkey and to investigate the factors associated with low vitamin D status

Sterile pyuria as the initial finding in a case with Kawasaki disease

Kawasaki disease is a multisystemic vasculitis of pediatric age group. Early diagnosis and treatment is crucial as coronary artery aneurysms may develop in 20-25% of untreated cases in the 2nd-3rd weeks of the disease. The most common urinary finding in the active period is sterile pyuria; which is believed to be a sign of a more severe systemic inflammation. In this study, a 3.5 year old boy who admitted with high fever was presented. As he had pyuria and elevated acute phase reactants, antibiotic treatment was started with a pre-diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis. Later, with the persistence of fever, detection of a negative urine culture result and emergence of dermal, mucosal and conjunctival changes, incomplete Kawasaki disease (KD) was diagnosed. In conclusion, it should be remembered that prolonged fever with sterile pyuria can be the initial findings in KD; before the emergence of typical lesions

Growth curves for Turkish Girls with Turner Syndrome: Results of the Turkish Turner Syndrome Study Group

OBJECTIVE: Children with Turner syndrome (TS) have a specific growth pattern that is quite different from that of healthy children. Many countries have population-specific growth charts for TS. Considering national and ethnic differences, we undertook this multicenter collaborative study to construct growth charts and reference values for height, weight and body mass index (BMI) from 3 years of age to adulthood for spontaneous growth of Turkish girls with TS. METHODS: Cross-sectional height and weight data of 842 patients with TS, younger than 18 years of age and before starting any therapy, were evaluated. RESULTS: The data were processed to calculate the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th percentile values for defined ages and to construct growth curves for height-for-age, weight-for-age and BMI-for-age of girls with TS. The growth pattern of TS girls in this series resembled the growth pattern of TS girls in other reports, but there were differences in height between our series and the others. CONCLUSION: This study provides disease-specific growth charts for Turkish girls with TS. These disease-specific national growth charts will serve to improve the evaluation of growth and its management with growth-promoting therapeutic agents in TS patients