Author/Authors :
Aydoğdu, Selime Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Çocuk Sağlığı - Hastalıkları Kliniği, Türkiye , Güven, Şirin Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Çocuk Sağlığı - Hastalıkları Kliniği, Türkiye , Yazar, Ahmet Sami Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Çocuk Sağlığı - Hastalıkları Kliniği, Türkiye , Yakut, Kahraman Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi - Çocuk Kliniği, Türkiye
Abstract :
Objective: Although the diagnosis of patients with severe malnutrition is easy, it is very difficult to recognize patients with mild and moderate malnutrition. A variety of methods attempts to develop for early diagnosis of these cases. In this study, we evaluated the serum transferrin and albumin levels in children with mild, moderate and severe protein-energy malnutrition (PEM). Materials and methods: Children admitted to our policlinic, aged between 3 and 25 months, 45 subjects with PEM and 39 healthy subjects (control group) were evaluated. According to the Gomez, Waterlow and Kanawati subjects with PEM were divided in 3 subgroups mild, moderate and severe PEM. Anthropometric measurements and biochemical results of 4 groups were compared. Results: For albumin levels in mild to moderate PEM groups, 37.7% sensitivity, and 28.5% specificity, positive predictive value 54%; negative predictive value 16.6% was found. For severe PEM sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 71%, 62.5%, 45%, and 83.3% respectively. With respect to the levels of transferrin, a significant difference was found between mild PEM-control and moderate PEM-control groups (p 0.05). There was no significant difference between the other groups (p 0.05). Conclusion: Our study results showed that albumin is a weak indicator in mild-moderate PEM. In these cases, serum transferrin level reduces before decreasing of albumin level, thus it may be an early sensitive finding that can be used as a sensitive parameter in the diagnosis of early stages of malnutrition.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
Protein energy malnutrition , children , albumin , transferrin
