Abdominal epilepsy as an unusual cause ofabdominal pain: a case report.

Introduction: Abdominal pain, in etiology sometimes difficult to be defined, is a frequent complaint in childhood. Abdominal epilepsy is a rare cause of abdominal pain. Objectives: In this article, we report on 5 year old girl patient with abdominal epilepsy. Methods: Some investigations (stool investigation, routine blood tests, ultrasonography (USG), electrocardiogram (ECHO) and electrocardiograpy (ECG), holter for 24hr.) were done to understand the origin of these complaints; but no abnormalities were found. Finally an EEG was done during an episode of abdominal pain and it was shown that there were generalized spikes especially precipitated by hyperventilation. The patient did well on valproic acid therapy and EEG was normal 1 month after beginning of the treatment. Discussion: The cause of chronic recurrent paroxymal abdominal pain is difficult for the clinicians to diagnose in childhood. A lot of disease may lead to paroxysmal gastrointestinal symptoms like familial mediterranean fever and porfiria. Abdominal epilepsy is one of the rare but easily treatable cause of abdominal pain. Conclusion: In conclusion, abdominal epilepsy should be suspected in children with recurrent abdominal pain.

Procalcitonin Biomarker Kinetics to Predict Multiorgan Dysfunction Syndrome in Children With Sepsis and Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome

Background: Procalcitonin (PCT) kinetics is a good prognosis marker in infectious diseases, but few studies of children sepsis have been performed. Objectives: The aim of our study was to examine kinetics of procalcitonin, to evaluate its relationship with severity and to analyze its usefulness in the prediction of multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Patients and Methods: Prospective observational study in an 8-bed pediatric intensive care unit of a university hospital. Sixty-two children aged 0-19 years with systemic inflammatory response syndrome or septic states. The degree of severity was evaluated according pediatric logistic organ dysfunction (PELOD) score. Blood tests to determine levels of PCT were taken if the patients had the criteria of systemic inflammatory response syndrome or sepsis. The serum to determine levels of PCT in control group has been taken from patients undergoing elective surgery. Results: Higher values of PCT were identified in patients with PELOD score 12 and more compared to those with PELOD < 12 (P = 0.016). Similarly, higher PCT values were found in patients who developed MODS in contrast to those without MODS (P = 0.011). According to ROC analysis cut-off value of 4.05 ng/mL was found to best discriminate patients with PELOD < 12 and PELOD ≥ 12 with AUC = 0.675 (P = 0.035). Effect of procalcitonin levels on mortality was not demonstrated. Conclusions: Levels of procalcitonin from day 1 to day 5 are related to the severity and multiorgan dysfunction syndrome in children.

Current status of malaria parasite among blood donors in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of malaria parasite among blood donors at the Police Clinic Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The standard parasitological techniques using both thick and thin blood films from the donors for the detection of malaria parasite was followed. Venous blood was collected from 200 blood donors and films were made on clean greese-free glass slide and stained with 10%Giemsa stains and viewed under the microscope using the oil immersion objective. Of the 200 samples examined, 56 (28.00%) were positive with Plasmodium falciparium . The highest prevalence among the males 53(26.50%) and between the ages 21-30years and only 3 (1.50%) of females were positive. Donors having the blood group O were more infected (60.70%) than the other blood groups and the lowest was blood group AB (5.40%). This result shows that there is a relatively high prevalence of malaria parasite among the blood donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It is, therefore, recommended that malaria parasite screening test be included among other blood screening tests before any transfusion to avert the deleterious effects of malaria on recipients.

Association of ABO blood group and Plasmodium falciparum malaria among Children in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

The ABO and Rhesus blood group systems are very important clinical tools that are commonly used in blood transfusion and their associations with various disease conditions have been widely reported. This study investigated the distribution of these blood group systems and assessed the association of malaria infection with the ABO blood groups among children in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Blood specimens from deep finger pricks of 730 children aged between 0-2 years were examined for malaria parasites using Field stains method. ABO and Rhesus blood group antigens tests were also performed using standard tile protocols. Of all the children admitted into the study, 445 were sick while 285 were apparently healthy. The prevalence of malaria parasites was significantly higher (P = 0.00047) among the sick children (69.8%) than the apparently healthy children (30.2%). The most prevalent blood group was O (55.7%) and the Rhesus D antigen was positive for 98.4% of all the children. The prevalence of blood group B among the sick children was significantly lower (P = 0.00373) than the other blood group types. There is no association between malaria infection and ABO blood groups but the prevalence of higher malaria parasite density was significantly greater (P = 0.0404) in children with blood group A (7.7%). In conclusion, blood group O was the most prevalent blood group in the study and children with blood group A appeared to be more susceptible to higher level of malaria parasitemia.