الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract LRTI associated with anemia occurs more commonly in children than in adults, with anemia affecting approximately 30% of children all over the world. Iron deficiency anemia in children occurs most frequently between the age of 6 months and 3 years, the same period of age when repeated infections occur. So, the aim of the study was to evaluate the role of iron deficiency anemia as a risk factor for lower respiratory tract infections. Our study included seventy-four children with LRTI of both sex. Included children were aged 3.56±3.66 years, carried out on 74 children admitted in Pediatric Department, Agouza Police Hospital in a period from March to December 2013. These children suffering from lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), they were subdivided into two groups according to presence or absence of respiratory distress signs. They were matched with another 36 apparently healthy children with the same age and sex served as control group. Estimation of serum iron, ferritin and TIBC levels was performed to all patients and control. In our study, male patients were affected by acute lower respiratory tract infections more than females, with a pecentage of 56% to 44%. Summary - 115 - Most of patient group with no respiratory distress 31 of 34 (91.1%) have fever while fever present only in 26 of 40 (65.0%) of respiratory distress group. There were high statistical significant differences between control and both group of patients according to serum iron and TIBC levels (P=0.01) with no significance to ferritin level (P=1.0). Serum iron, ferritin and TIBC were 33.42±15.63 mg/dL, 102.73±131.11 ng/mL, and 493.45±141.63 mg/dL respectively in control group. Serum iron, ferritin and TIBC were 86.26±61.00 mg/dL, 107.82±85.23 ng/mL, and 330.90±102.50 mg/dL respectively in patient group with no respiratory distress. While their levels were 74.0±51.52 mg/dL, 112.54±81.24 ng/mL, and 358.77±120.42 mg/dL respectively in patient group with respiratory distress. We concluded that the serum iron, ferritin and TIBC levels have no relation to respiratory distress among our children with LRTI. Further studies are recommended to investigate the serum iron profile including serum iron, ferritin and TIBC in addition to transferrin receptor in Egyptian children with LRTI, comprising larger number of candidates and with a prospective and longitudinal design to further investigate the magnitude of the problem. |