from the desk of THE editor
Dr Swati Y Bhave
Chief Editor Executive Director, AACCI (Association of Adolescent and Child Care in India) Senior Visiting Consultant Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi
We are very happy to bring out this issue of AJPP of July-September 2013. Anemia is a very common problem in children. Although a vast majority of anemia is due to nutritional deficiency, it is important to keep other causes of anemia in mind and do tests where there are clinical indications so that other important causes are not missed out. This issue contains a well-written review article on ‘Evaluation of Anemia in Children’. Young children are often brought for snoring, mouth breathing, rhinorrhea and sleep disturbances. The commonest causes are adenoid hypertrophy and deviated nasal septum. Surgery is generally recommended by physicians only if symptoms are severe. We have a good surgical article that enlightens us about adverse effects of not performing surgery for nasal septal deviation. It also helps us to understand that surgery for deviated septum should be combined with adenoidectomy for best results. Vitamin E has antioxidant properties and is useful for many important functions in the human bodylike signaling process in platelets and delaying disease process in many conditions such as neurogenerative disorders, coronary arteriosclerosis and others. Normal vitamin E levels in children and adults range from
5 to 20 µg/ml and are slightly lower in infants (3-10 µg/ml). It is important to know the levels in normal Indian children. We have a clinical study that was conducted to determine the ‘Vitamin E Level in Normal Indian Children’. There are three interesting case reports. The first describes a case of ‘Lichen Sclerosus et Atrophicus in a Young Girl’. This condition can be cosmetically distressing and also can be associated with sexual abuse and trauma; hence, the management is multipronged. Fetomaternal hemorrhage (FMH) can occur with minimal symptoms as in 98% of cases blood loss is usually <0.1 ml. Massive FMH i.e., blood loss of >150 ml is rare and we have a very interesting case report of this condition in this issue. The third case report is of Meckel-Gruber syndrome that is characterized by neurological malformations, polydactyly and cystic dysplasia of the kidneys. A photo quiz of ‘A Bubble Under the Tongue of a Young Child’ should be useful in clinical practice. It has a list of differential diagnoses and requires surgical excision. Last but not the least are journal reviews about zinc and its role in diarrhea as well as its supplementation in full-term normal infants and approach to fever of unknown origin. Happy Reading
Dr Swati Y Bhave Address for correspondence IJCP Group of Publications E - 219, Greater Kailash, Part - 1, New Delhi - 110 048
Asian Journal of Paediatric Practice, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2013
5