Poor dietary quality of complementary foods is associated with multiple micronutrient deficiencies during early childhood in Mongolia.

Objective: To assess whether persistent micronutrient deficiencies in Mongolian children identified in our earlier biochemical study are associated with inadequacies in quantity and/or quality in their complementary diets.

Design: A cross-sectional study of breast-fed children aged 6-23 months, randomly selected from four districts in Ulaanbaatar and four provincial capitals.

Subjects: Weight and length were measured, and sociodemographic status, feeding practices and nutrient adequacy of complementary foods for children aged 6-8 months (n 26), 9-11 months (n 29) and 12-23 months (n 73) were assessed via questionnaire and in-home interactive 24 h recalls.

Urinary excretion of beta-aminoisobutyric acid in hematological diseases.

The level of beta-aminoisobutyric acid (beta-AIB), a thymine catabolite, has been measured in urine samples of 160 healthy individuals, 28 patients with renal, 27 patients with cardiovascular and 27 patients with hematological diseases and of 36 tumor patients. No significant difference in the prevalence of high excretors of beta-AIB between patients with cancer, renal and cardiovascular diseases and the healthy group was found, whereas all but two patients with hematological diseases were high excretors. Urinary beta-AIB shows a reverse correlation with the hemoglobin level and erythrocyte count in the cases of anemia, and appears to be directly correlated with the leukocyte count and blast cell content in the cases of leukemia, with its amount decreasing two to five-fold with the return of the hematological markers to normal levels after medicinal treatment.