Evaluation of Hematological Parameters in Children with Idiopathic Facial Paralysis: A Case-control Study

Aim:Idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis [Bell’s palsy (BP)] is the most common cause of acute, one-sided facial paralysis, whose etiopathogenesis is currently unknown. However, inflammation is considered to play a role in etiopathogenesis. In this study, we examined the relationship between hematologic parameters and indices in children with BP.Methods:The study included 60 pediatric patients diagnosed with BP between December 2017 and May 2022 and 60 healthy controls of the same age and gender. The relationship between the patient and control cohorts and between the severity of the disease and inflammation markers was analyzed. Low-severe BP (House-Brackmann classification grade 2-3) and high-severe BP (House-Brackmann classification grade 4-5) were grouped. Complete blood count parameters and hematologic indices [neutrophil count/lymphocyte count (NLR), platelet count/lymphocyte count (PLR), monocyte count/lymphoid count (MLR), and platelet mass index] were recorded as inflammation markers.Results:55% of the patients had BP on the right side, 48.3% had grade 3, and 30.0% had grade 4 facial paralysis. Leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, and platelet counts were significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group (p-values p<0.001, p=0.006, p=0.027, p=0.009, respectively). The low-severe BP group had significantly higher leukocyte counts than the highsevere BP group. However, there was no significant difference between the other hematologic parameters and indices (NLR, PLR, MLR, and platelet mass index).Conclusion:Children with BP had higher counts of leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and platelets than children in the control group. Thus, we believe that these parameters can be used in the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment of patients with BP

Immunization status and re-immunization of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors

Intensive chemotherapy can cause long-lasting immunosuppression in children who survived cancer. The immunosuppression varies according to the type of cancer, intensity of chemotherapy and age of the patient. A sufficient immune reconstruction when has been completed in childhood cancer survivors, the re-vaccination program can achieve sufficient antibody levels for some of the life-threatening vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. This study evaluates the serological status of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases before and after the intensive chemotherapy treatment. Antibodies against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A and B were tested with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Antibody titers were measured firstly at the leukemia diagnosis time when the chemotherapy was not started. The second evaluation of antibody titers was studied at 6 months after the cessation of chemotherapy for all patients. Forty-six patients with the mean age of 6.1 ± 4.5 years were participated in this study. Changing to seronegative after treatment was significantly different in measles, rubella, hepatitis A and hepatitis B (p < .05). Seventy-eight (28%) antibody levels in the patients were non-protective for all diseases. Only three (7%) patients had protective antibody levels for all diseases in the sixth month of chemotherapy cessation. There was a negative correlation between patient’s age and losing protective antibody levels for any vaccine-preventable disease (p < .05). Antibody levels against vaccine-preventable diseases have evident that reduced after ALL treatment at childhood. Pediatric ALL survivors must be re-vaccinated for vaccine-preventable diseases after achieving immune reconstruction

Epidemiological, Clinical, and Laboratory Features of Children With COVID-19 in Turkey

Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children