Maternal and newborn thyroid hormonal profile in a non-goitrous area of Myanmar.

Serum thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyrotropin (TSH) levels of 325 pairs of blood samples from the newborn infants and their mothers were determined with the aim of establishing the thyroid hormonal profile of the newborn babies and their mothers in a non-goitrous area of Myanmar. The mean +/- SEM cord serum T4, T3 and TSH levels were 117.47 +/- 1.

Absorption of carbohydrate from rice in Ascaris lumbricoides infected Burmese village children.

With the objective of determining the relationship between ascariasis and carbohydrate absorption from rice, breath hydrogen tests (BHT's) were performed in two study populations of Burmese village children. Using a rice test meal, breath hydrogen peaks greater than 10 ppm above baseline within 4 hours (indicating rice malabsorption) were seen in 24 out of 55 (44 per cent) Ascaris lumbricoides infected children and 3 out of 18 (17 per cent) non-infected children (age 18-59 months). In another ascaris endemic village 139 children (age 36-108 months) underwent a rice meal BHT.

A controlled chemotherapeutic intervention trial on the relationship between Ascaris lumbricoides infection and malnutrition in children.

A 2-year investigation, consisting of a controlled, non-blind, 3-monthly chemotherapeutic intervention trial, based on transmission dynamics of Ascaris lumbricoides infection, was undertaken to prove or refute the role of A. lumbricoides as a contributor to childhood malnutrition. The study involved 1206 children aged 2-12 years in 21 villages in Myanmar [Burma] starting in August 1984.

Epidemiology and aetiology of acute childhood diarrhoea in Burma: a rural community survey.

Identical epidemiological and microbiological surveys were carried out in a rural community at Intakaw, Burma, in 2 months, one in the hot wet and the other in the cool dry season. The incidence of diarrhoea was highest in children under 3 years old and in the hot wet month when enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli was the predominant pathogen. Rotavirus was the commonest pathogen in the cool dry month but was absent in the hot wet month.

A study on the aetiology of endemic goitre in lowland Burma.

The prevalence and aetiology of lowland endemic goitre was studied in Bawlle Village, Htan-ta-bin Township, Rangoon Division. The total goitre rate was found to be 40.9 per cent.

Effect of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli heat stable toxin on intestinal lysosomal enzymes in the suckling rat.

A preliminary study on 9 suckling Wistar rats, which received E. coli stable toxin, and on 12 sham-operated controls showed that acid phosphatase, the marker enzyme for lysosome, was significantly increased in the infected group whereas alkaline phosphatase, glucose 6-phosphatase, succinic dehydrogenase, and proteinase, the marker enzymes for brush border, microsome, mitochondria, and the soluble fraction, respectively, remained unaffected. The results suggest that lysosome, the subcellular organelle responsible for intracellular digestion could be modified by E.

Effect of boiled-rice feeding in childhood cholera on clinical outcome.

Forty-eight children, aged 2-5 years, presenting with watery diarrhoea of less than 48 h duration at home prior to hospitalization, were admitted into a randomized controlled clinical trial, 24 children being treated during the first 24 h of admission with oral rehydration solution (ORS) alone and 24 children being given 'ORS plus boiled-rice feeding'. The latter group received boiled-rice to supply at least 55 kcal/kg/d (about 150 g boiled-rice per feed, given four times daily). Vibrio cholerae were isolated by stool culture on admission from all children.

Composition and contamination of oral rehydration solutions prepared with well water by village mothers in Burma.

A field study was carried out at Htaukkyant village in Burma to assess whether village mothers could use condensed milk tins to measure one litre of water with reasonable accuracy for the preparation of oral rehydration solutions (ORS) and whether the extent of bacterial contamination of well water was serious and if this affected the bicarbonate content of the ORS solution. Empty condensed milk tins have a fairly uniform volume around 330 ml and using three condensed milk tins full of water mothers made up one litre quite consistently. Mothers also proved capable of preparing ORS solution by dissolving one packet of oral rehydration salt (ORS) in three condensed milk tins full of water to obtain solutions which contained acceptable and safe concentrations of sodium and potassium.

Effect on clinical outcome of breast feeding during acute diarrhoea.

The effects of oral rehydration fluid alone and of oral rehydration fluid plus breast feeding on the course and outcome of acute diarrhoea were assessed in two groups of 26 children aged under 2 years. Children who continued to be breast fed during treatment with oral rehydration solutions passed significantly fewer diarrhoeal stools. They also passed, on average, a smaller volume of diarrhoeal stools and recovered from diarrhoea sooner after the start of treatment.

Oral rehydration therapy in the home by village mothers in Burma.

Acceptability and effectiveness of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) when given by mothers in the home under village conditions was investigated in six (two control and four test) communities at Htauk-kyant near Rangoon, Burma. The control and test village communities had populations of 2085 and 4278 respectively, of which 218 and 623 were children under five. In the test villages, Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) were made constantly available by providing each household with one packet of ORS, which was replenished whenever a used packet was returned to the field workers during their daily surveillance rounds.

The effects of oral iron supplementation on ferritin levels in pregnant Burmese women.

The usefulness of serum ferritin levels in assessing iron stores in pregnant women before and after supplementation with iron was studied. One hundred thirty-five healthy pregnant women between 22 to 28 wk were randomly allotted to daily dose regimes of 60, 120, or 240 mg of ferrous sulphate. The tablets were given after meals under strict personal supervision.

Isotopic exchange in 59Fe labeled rice-based meals.

The process of isotopic exchange between extrinsic 59Fe tracer and native nonheme Fe in a rice-based meal was studied by performing Sephadex G-50 column chromatography of soluble supernatant of (1) 59Fe-labeled meal after in vitro pepsin digestion and (2) duodenal aspirate obtained from a human subject fed a similarly labeled meal. The elution patterns of radioactivity and chemically determined nonheme Fe differed markedly when the supernatant of in vitro digested meal at pH 1.8 was analyzed, whereas the patterns were similar when pH was adjusted to 6.

Iron absorption from Southeast Asian rice-based meals.

Non-heme iron absorption from three Burmese meals was measured using the method of adding extrinsic radioiron tracer to label the non-heme iron in the whole meals. Thirty-one healthy Burmese subjects were divided into three groups, each of which was given one type of meal. The absorption of reference ferrous ascorbate was also measured in all subjects and used to calibrate the observed absorption values when comparing different groups.