Iron overload in hemoglobinopathies is secondary to blood transfusions, chronic hemolysis, and increased iron absorption and leads to tissue injury requiring the early use of chelating agents. The available agents are parenteral deferoxamine and oral deferiprone and deferasirox. There are limited data on the safety and efficacy of deferiprone at a very young age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Pediatr
April 2013
Unlabelled: Kearns-Sayre syndrome (KSS) is a rare mitochondrial DNA deletion syndrome defined as the presence of ophthalmoplegia, pigmentary retinopathy, onset less than age 20 years, and one of the following: cardiac conduction defects, cerebellar syndrome, or cerebrospinal fluid protein above 100 mg/dl. KSS may affect many organ systems causing endocrinopathies, encephalomyopathy, sensorineural hearing loss, and renal tubulopathy. Clinical presentation at diagnosis is quite heterogeneous and, usually, few organs are affected with progression to generalized disease early in adulthood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/aim: The adipocytokines leptin and adiponectin represent a critical link between metabolism, immunity and chronic inflammation. A chronic vascular inflammatory state plays an important role in the pathophysiology of thalassaemia. We aimed to analyze the levels of these adipocytokines and determine any possible correlations with disease severity or vascular inflammation markers in beta-thalassaemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a rare, congenital, pure red blood cell aplasia owing to gene defects affecting the function of ribosomal proteins, essential for erythroid maturation. Iron overload is a serious complication of chronic transfusions, which may lead to cardiac toxicity and endothelial damage. We report a case of pulmonary embolism, observed after viper bite in a transfusion-dependent child with DBA without known inherited thrombophilic factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Sweet's syndrome characterized by fever, blood neutrophilia and inflammatory skin lesions, is rarely diagnosed in children. It presents in three clinical settings: classical Sweet's syndrome, usually after a respiratory tract infection; malignancy-associated, frequently related to acute myelogeneous leukemia; and drug-induced. We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of a rotavirus -infection-related Sweet's syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViral meningitis is characterized by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lymphocyte pleocytosis, although neutrophils may predominate in the early phase. The T helper 1 (Th1)/Th2 cytokine balance and expression of adhesion molecules seem to be involved in the CSF chemotaxis. We aimed to determine expression of cytokines and adhesion molecules in enteroviral meningitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives And Methods: Brucellosis is characterized by chronicity and relapses despite efficacious treatment. Cytokines and especially the Th1/Th2 balance may be involved in the susceptibility or resistance to the Brucella species. In order to identify predictors of treatment outcome, we measured the pre and posttreatment levels of serum interleukin-2 (IL-2) and soluble IL-2 receptor alpha (sIL-2Ralpha) in 20 children with brucellosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntracranial hydatidosis is more common in children than in adults. The most severe complication is anaphylactic response after direct rupture into the subarachnoid spaces. We report a case of brain hydatid cyst that was accidentally drained into the peritoneal cavity and was not complicated by an anaphylactic response or dissemination.
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