Serum Pentraxin 3 Fragment as a Noninvasive Marker of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Obese Children and Adolescents.

Background/aims: It was suggested that serum pentraxin 3 (PTX3) levels could differentiate obese children with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) from those with simple steatosis. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the clinical utility of serum PTX3 fragment levels in the diagnosis of NASH and the assessment of its severity in obese children with suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Methods: Fifty obese children were compared to 25 matched controls.

A prospective study of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia receiving chemotherapy.

Background: Glucocorticoids are essential in protocols of therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Objectives: To assess the incidence, severity, morbidity, and risk factors of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) suppression in children with ALL, and the time course of recovery.

Design: Forty standard risk ALL children treated in the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit, Ain-Shams University, Egypt, were classified into dexamethasone (DXM) group: 20 patients on children cancer group protocol and prednisone (PDN) group: 20 patients on modified Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster (BFM) study group 90 protocol.

Dyslipidemia and hyperinsulinemia in children and adolescents with chronic liver disease: relation to disease severity.

Background: Lipid metabolism is profoundly disturbed in chronic liver diseases (CLD). Moreover, patients with cirrhosis displayed chronically elevated serum insulin (SI) concentrations.

Objectives: The aim of this work was to assess fasting lipid profile (FLP) and SI levels among Egyptian patients with CLD and their relation to severity of liver disease.

Hyperandrogenemia in male autistic children and adolescents: relation to disease severity.

Background: It has been suggested that autistic patients have elevated blood androgens, and although signs of precocious puberty have been reported in autistic patients, such a relation has not yet been clarified.

Objectives: To assess serum androgen levels in a group of Egyptian male autistic children and adolescents and their relation to disease severity. In addition, the risk for association of androgens with autism was estimated.

Effect of inhaled corticosteroids on growth and puberty in Egyptian asthmatic children and adolescents.

Growth suppression and delayed puberty may be major concerns for Inhaled Corticosteroids (ICS) treatment in children. Thus, we aimed to assess the effect of long-term ICS on growth and pubertal status in 30 asthmatic children and adolescents in comparison to 20-matched healthy subjects. Auxological measurements, Tanner staging and bone age assessment were performed.

Study of nonstandard auto-antibodies as prognostic markers in auto immune hepatitis in children.

Background: Antibodies to chromatin and soluble liver antigen have been associated with severe form of autoimmune hepatitis and/or poor treatment response and may provide guidance in defining subsets of patients with different disease behaviors. The major clinical limitation of these antibodies is their lower individual occurrence in patients with autoimmune hepatitis.

Aim: To estimate the value of detection of these non-standard antibodies in autoimmune hepatitis as prognostic markers.