Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Eeckels.
The efficacy of dexamethasone therapy for primary respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis was studied in a double-blind placebo design in 29 previously healthy infants (median age, 194 days). No significant differences were found between the groups in evolution of respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, clinical score, or pulmonary function tests on day 3.
BACKGROUND: The aim was to determine maternal factors related to child survival in the rural area of Bwamanda, Northern Zaire. METHODS: A prospective study of 30-months mortality was carried out in a cohort of 776 children aged 0-3 months, obtained by random cluster sampling. Inclusion criteria were exclusive breastfeeding, no severe prematurity and absence of severe protein-energy malnutrition, diarrhoea or acute respiratory infection. Mortality was recorded by regular home visits and inspection of hospital and funeral registers. Maternal factors that remain stable during follow-up were studied. RESULTS: Factors associated with excess mortality in bivariate and multiple logistic regression analysis were: (i) mother has parity > 5 (relative risk [RR] = 1.5-4.2); (ii) distance from the health centre > 5 km (RR = 0.9-2.9); (iii) invaliding maternal diseases (RR = 1.2-9.0). Maternal school education (conditional odds ratio [OR] = 1.0-5.0) was significant in the multiple regression. In contrast to the other risk factors, mother-child separation or problems with breastfeeding were rare and did not significantly increase mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic stress situations created by maternal invalidity, high parity and distance from health care facilities, increase child mortality. Acute stress in the mother-child dyad seemed to be efficiently compensated for. In subsistence economy areas, maternal school education can be a disadvantage.
In this cross-sectional study of a random cluster sample of 4238 rural Zairian children aged 0-5 y, we assessed underweight and wasting, defined as weight-for-age < 75%, and weight-for-height < 80% of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics reference median, respectively. We determined the diagnostic validity of underweight and wasting for protein-energy malnutrition, taking a low arm circumference and clinical signs of muscle loss as criteria. Both underweight and wasting had low sensitivity in recognizing low arm circumference, any clinical muscle loss and even severe marasmus, especially in the weaning period of 12-30 mos. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the diagnostic validity of weight-for-height can be improved by using a cutoff for wasting at Z-score -0.75 instead of Z-score -2 or 80% of reference median. ROC analysis of 30-mo mortality revealed a poor prognostic validity of weight-for-height and weight-for-age and better performances of arm circumference (cm) and of age. These data suggest that nutritional intervention programs targeted at wasted or underweight children can have only a limited effect on the prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition in the community or on the long-term mortality associated with it.
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The therapeutic efficacy of hyperimmune bovine colostrum (HBC) from cows immunized with four serotypes of human rotavirus was evaluated in a double-blind, randomized trial in 75 boys, aged 6-24 months, infected with rotavirus diarrhoea. The treatment group received 100 ml of HBC three times a day for 3 consecutive days, while the controls received the same amount of bovine colostrum from significantly shorter duration of diarrhoea than the controls (median 56 versus 72 h (p<0.001); confidence interval of median difference (CI) 8-32 h). Total stool output (g/kg) between admission and cessation of diarrhoea was reduced by 29% in the HBC-treated group compared with controls (median 205 versus 290 g (p=0.04); CI = 1-154 g). In 50% of the children in the study group, diarrhoea stopped by 48 h, whereas 100% of the controls were still suffering from diarrhoea. No untoward effects were noted in either group. Colostrum from cows immunized with rotavirus antigen is clinically effective in reducing the duration and severity of childhood diarrhoea due to rotavirus.
The long-term pulmonary consequences of right middle lobe syndrome (RMLS) in childhood are not known. Therefore, outcome was evaluated in 17 children with RMLS diagnosed in early childhood (mean age, 3.3 years; SD, 1.1 year). Mean age at follow-up was 10.1 years (SD, 2.6 years). RMLS was defined as atelectasis of the right middle lobe (RML) of at least 1 month's duration and visible on the lateral view of the chest radiograph as a wedge-shaped density extending from the hilum anteriorly and downward. Seventeen children without personal history of allergy or respiratory tract disease were studied as control group. Five of 17 study group children had ongoing respiratory problems: symptoms of asthma were present in 4 patients, and cylindrical bronchiectasis was present in one patient. Chest radiograph at follow-up was abnormal in six patients. Pulmonary function tests, including mean and SEM for vital capacity (VC) (82% of predicted +/- 7 vs 94% predicted +/- 3), FEV1 (77% of predicted +/- 12 vs 96% of predicted +/- 4) and their ratio (75 +/- 5 vs 85 +/- 3) were significantly lower in patients with ongoing respiratory symptoms than in the control children. The provocative dose causing a 20% decrease in FEV1 (PD20) of methacholine was significantly lower in patients with ongoing symptoms at follow-up than in control children and in patients without symptoms at follow-up (2.8[2.2 to 3.1] vs 4.5[2.2 to 8.8] and 9.2[2.3 to 24] mg/mL; median and P25-75, p < 0.05). Age at initial diagnosis tended to be younger in patients with ongoing symptoms at follow-up (2.3 +/- 0.7 years vs 3.8 +/- 0.4 years; p < 0.08).
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A diet based on rice powder, soya-bean oil, glucose, egg-white and salts was given to twenty-six patients of different nutritional status aged 4-18 months with persistent diarrhoea and twenty-five age-matched controls without diarrhoea. Clinical response was monitored during 1 week of dietary treatment and absorption of macronutrients was estimated during a 72 h balance study. Twenty-one patients (81%) recovered from diarrhoea within 7 d. There were significant relationships between nutritional indices, recovery, and absorption of total energy, fat and N. The absorption of fat, protein and carbohydrate in the better nourished controls without diarrhoea was significantly higher than in patients with persistent diarrhoea with better nutrition or malnutrition. The duration of diarrhoea was significantly longer in lighter patients (weight-for-age < 65% NCHS (1976) standard), in wasted patients (weight/height < 80% of NCHS) and those with mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) less than 110 mm. There were negative relationships between the period of recovery and the coefficient of absorption of fat (P < 0.001), total energy intake (P < 0.01) and MUAC (P < 0.05). Weight-for-age and MUAC showed most effective discriminative power for absorption of nutrients. However, the coefficients of absorption for carbohydrate were not different for any pair of nutritional groups. Absorption of all nutrients was also correlated negatively with severity of persistent diarrhoea on admission. The results of the present study indicate that a rice-based diet is highly effective in the management of persistent diarrhoea and less malnutrition aggravates nutrient malabsorption, increases duration and severity of diarrhoea and less severely malnourished patients do not absorb nutrients as well as healthy controls. Malnutrition and the initial severity of diarrhoea are significant determinants of clinical prognosis and nutrient absorption in persistent diarrhoea.
OBJECTIVE: To study risk factors for and prevalence and validity of clinical-anthropometrical mismatch (CAM) defined as the presence of clinical signs of protein-energy malnutrition despite normal weight-for-age (WFA). DESIGN: A semi-longitudinal study of nutrition and morbidity with a longitudinal assessment of mortality. SETTING: The rural health zone of Bwamanda in Northern Zaire. SUBJECTS: 4238 children of age 0-6 years enrolled by random cluster sampling. INTERVENTION: Clinical nutritional staging, anthropometry, diagnosis of diarrhoea and severe respiratory infection in the rainy (first survey) and the subsequent dry season (second survey). Recording of mortality during 27 months after the second survey. RESULTS: Prevalence of CAM was high above various cut-off levels of WFA and was accompanied by increased morbidity and long-term mortality. Of all the children with clinical signs of malnutrition, a high proportion had normal WFA. CAM was associated with weight loss within the limits of the international reference. CONCLUSIONS: If a child has a normal weight but clinical malnutrition signs are present, the clinical diagnosis should prevail. Weight charts are not fully appropriate for nutritional classification purposes. The clinical nutritional staging used in this study is sufficiently reproducible and capable of identifying children with functional malnutrition.
Although the association between nutritional status and mortality risk is obvious for extreme malnutrition, the issue is not so clear for mild to moderate undernutrition. We have investigated this association in children of 0-5 years in the rural area of Bwamanda, Zaire, where an integrated development project, with good medical facilities, has operated for 20 years. A random cluster sample of 5167 children was taken; newborn infants and immigrants were included at six quarterly survey rounds from October, 1989, until February, 1991. All surveys included clinical and anthropometric assessment of nutritional status. Deaths were recorded up to April, 1992; there were 246 deaths. Marasmus, kwashiorkor, and other causes of death were defined by the verbal autopsy method and checked against medical records kept at the central hospital and the peripheral dispensaries. As expected, we found an increased risk of death in severe malnutrition. When deaths directly attributed to marasmus or kwashiorkor were excluded, mild to moderate stunting or wasting were not associated with higher mortality in the short term (within 3 months of the previous study round) or in the long term (from 3-30 months after study entry). The commonest causes of death were malaria and anaemia. Extreme marasmus and kwashiorkor caused 16% of deaths, and are important causes of death even in this favoured area with an integrated development project. Nutritional interventions should be targeted more selectively so that children with moderate malnutrition can be protected from progression to marasmus or kwashiorkor.
Two cases of dermoid cysts of the posterior fossa in association with a dermal fistula and with different clinical presentations are reported. The patient in case 1 is a 14-month-old girl with a history of recurrent bacterial meningitis. Case 2, a 7-year-old girl, presented with a skin "granuloma" at the inion. Both cases, and a review of the literature, demonstrate the need for a thorough exploration of the cranial and spinal midline skin areas in every newborn and argue for widespread use of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging whenever a suspected midline lesion is found.
Cross-sectional morbidity recorded during two successive quarterly survey rounds and subsequent 27-months mortality were studied in a random sample of 4238 preschool children in a rural Zairian area. Analysis focuses on morbid patterns, i.e. any combination of the principal signs and symptoms encountered in tropical areas (oedema, marasmus, cough, fever, diarrhoea and tachypnoea). Almost half the children (45-48%) had signs of morbidity, a very high rate. The 3-6 month age group emerged as particularly vulnerable with the highest prevalences of all morbid patterns except for isolated fever. Isolated cough was more prevalent in the dry season probably as an effect of nightly indoor woodburning. All other morbid patterns were significantly more prevalent in the rainy season. Diarrhoea with cough was found to constitute half of all cases of diarrhoea. The results show that with a few simple questions on major symptoms and a brief examination by paramedical health workers, children with an increased risk of death can be identified. The method can be applied at under-5 clinics. Prognosis is particularly bad in severe malnutrition, especially when associated with diarrhoea, in diarrhoea with cough, cough with fever/tachypnoea and for children who are found sick both in the rainy and the subsequent dry season.
Nine asymptomatic members of a family of Belgian origin, spanning three generations, present typical features of heterozygous beta-thalassemia. Since no mutation was detected with a large panel of oligonucleotide probes, the thalassemia gene was investigated by direct sequencing of DNA segments amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. A T-->C transition was detected in the translation initiation codon (ATG). The mutation, which abolishes an Nco I restriction site, was further confirmed by enzymatic digestion as well as by dot-blot hybridization of the amplified products with allele-specific oligonucleotide probes. It produced a beta zero-thalassemia phenotype characterized by marked microcytosis and hypochromia, as well as by an in vitro beta/alpha chain synthesis ratio close to O.5. Search for haplotype linkage showed the mutation to be associated with haplotype IX [- + - + + + +].
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Twenty six infant boys, aged 4 to 18 months, suffering from persistent diarrhoea and 25 age matched healthy controls without diarrhoea were given a diet based on rice powder, egg white, glucose, and soya oil. The clinical efficacy of the diet was studied and a 72 hour metabolic balance study was done. Twenty one patients recovered from diarrhoea within seven days. Median coefficients of absorption of nutrients in persistent diarrhoea patients were 68.0% (range 28.0 to 92.0) for total energy, 60.0% (range 21.0 to 97.0) for fat, 53.0% (range -122.0 to 82.0) for nitrogen, and 81.0% (range 23.0 to 97.0) for carbohydrates. The corresponding values among the control subjects were 90.0% (range 76.0 to 99.0), 95.0% (range 71.0 to 99.0), 70.0% (range 10.0 to 95.0), and 93.0% (range 85.0 to 98.0) respectively. Absorption of all macronutrients in the control subjects was on average significantly higher than in the patients. Nutrient absorption is substantially reduced in persistent diarrhoea and a rice based diet is clinically effective in most patients.
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