Harish Pemde

Lady Hardinge Medical College | LHMC

Background: Malnutrition among children is a major public health problem and an underlying cause of millions of child deaths across the globe. The WHO has provided criteria for identifying malnourished children aged 6-59 months however, these criteria have not been fully evaluated against the risk of in-patient mortality. The observational study wa...

Objectives: To associate the severity of nutritional anaemia with serum levels of ferritin, vitamin B12 and folate; and to determine demographic, socio-economic and nutritional correlates for nutritional anemia in adolescents. Methods: Cross-sectional hospital-based study among 200 adolescents (10-18 y) with anemia. Dietary intake (24-h recall),...

Effective and safe pediatric procedural sedation is still a concern especially in areas outside operation theatres. The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy and safety of oral triclofos and oral midazolam in children undergoing computed tomography.Methods: A prospective randomized double blind study was conducted in 100 children aged one to...

Background: Endocrinopathies are common in patients with thalassaemia major (TM) despite parenteral iron chelation therapy with deferoxamine. There are only a few studies on the efficacy of oral deferiprone in preventing endocrine dysfunction. Aim: To determine the growth and endocrine complications in children with TM receiving oral iron chelat...

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in spite of being the single most important under-five morbidity have not been studied adequately in peri-urban settings in India. We conducted this study prospectively on a cohort of 106 children in a peri-urban area of Delhi. The overall 2-week prevalence of all types of ARI was 34.3%. Annual combined incidence...

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH) is a rare complication in patients of haemophilia. We report the case of a 9-year-old boy with severe haemophilia B who presented with acute abdomen of 5 days duration. Acute onset of neck/back pain,walking impairment and urinary retention has usually been described as symptom complex in SSEH. The hematom...

Transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) and its treatment affect the physical, emotional, and social functioning, impairing the quality of life (QoL). There are few studies on QoL of adolescent with TDT. Its effect on their siblings' QoL has not been studied so far. In this cross-sectional study, 40 adolescents with TDT, 28 siblings, and 40 control...

Inherited metabolic disorders are a rare cause of epilepsy in children. We describe a case of Glutaric aciduria type 1 presenting with West syndrome and a case of intermittent Maple syrup urine disease presenting with epileptic encephalopathy. Early diagnosis and institution of appropriate therapy may be life saving and may improve the long term ne...

To find the appropriate type of intravenous fluid (isotonic vs. hypotonic saline in 5 % dextrose) for empiric maintenance fluid therapy in children with central nervous system (CNS) infections that reduces the incidence of hospital acquired hyponatremia. This blinded randomized controlled trial included hospitalized children aged 3 mo to 5 y with s...

India has the highest prevalence of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Severe anemia is one of the comorbidities responsible for increased mortality in severely malnourished children, yet it has not received the attention it should. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence and type of anemia and to evaluate the possible etiologies...

Regular blood transfusion and iron chelation are the standard of care for children with thalassemia. Deferiprone is an effective oral iron chelator but is known to cause significant arthropathy. Though clinical and radiographic features of deferiprone related arthropathy have been described, the long-term effects are not known. Routine radiographs...

Objective: To evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of a pentavalent (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, inactivated poliovirus, Hib polysaccharide-conjugate) combination vaccine booster dose. Design: Multicenter, open, Phase III clinical study. Setting: Two tertiary-care hospitals in Delhi and Vellore, India. Participants/patients:...

Human leukocyte antigen-matched bone marrow transplant in the treatment of aplastic anemia is generally not feasible in developing countries due to lack of resources and expertise and immunosuppressive therapy (IST) has been used as an alternative. This study aims to report the long-term outcome of children with aplastic anemia treated with IST [an...

Background and Aims: Several guidelines recommend various needle gauges for vaccinating infants. Good quality evidence is hardly available for these recommendations. This pilot study was done to find optimum needle gauge for minimizing adverse reactions following DPT and Hepatitis-B vaccines.Methods: Infants of 6 -10 weeks of age were randomized to...

Fanconi's syndrome is a complex of multiple tubular dysfunctions of proximal tubular cells occurring alone or in association with a variety of inherited (primary) or acquired (secondary) disorders. It is characterized by aminoaciduria, normoglycaemic glycosuria, tubular proteinuria without hematuria, metabolic acidosis without anion gap and excessi...

Fanconi's syndrome is a complex of multiple tubular dysfunctions of proximal tubular cells occurring alone or in association with a variety of inherited (primary) or acquired (secondary) disorders. It is characterized by aminoaciduria, normoglycemic glycosuria, tubular proteinuria without hematuria, metabolic acidosis without anion gap and excessiv...

Acute wheezers for the first time in life are an important target group for efforts aimed at reducing unnecessary antibiotic use. To evaluate the effect of clinical, laboratory and radiological data on the decision to prescribe antibiotics to paediatric patients with first time wheezing as well as to seek criteria that would justify antibiotic use....

Anemia is common during adolescence. However, severe anemia is uncommon and can have varied etiology. This study was conducted to find out the profile of adolescents (10-18 years) admitted for severe anemia. The Case records of children between 10 and 18 years old admitted during the year 2008 in Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital for severe anemia...

Objective: To describe physical growth and related factors in transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of the records of the patients registered at and being followed up by the Thalassemia Day Care Center (TDCC) at Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, New Delhi, India. Clinical and laboratory parameters...

Iron chelation is an important component of management of transfusion-dependent patients with thalassaemia major. Deferasirox is a relatively new oral iron chelator and experience of its use in children is limited. To report experience with deferasirox in north Indian children with β-thalassaemia major. This prospective study included 40 patients w...

Four children; all between 10-40 days of age, were admitted with multiple episodes of multifocal seizure. After admission blood investigation was carried out and they were found to have hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia; kidney function tests were normal. Serum parathyroid hormone was highly elevated and serum magnesium level was found to be normal i...

To obtain immunogenicity and safety data for a pentavalent combination vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, inactivated poliovirus, Hib polysaccharide-conjugate). Multicenter, open, Phase III clinical study. A DTaP-IPV//PRP approximately T vaccine (Pentaxim) was given at 6,10,14 weeks of age; and Hepatitis B vaccine at 0,6,14 or at 6,...

Reporting on how the cancer treatment facilities were developed at a medical college hospital in India and the profile and outcome of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at this new center were the objectives of the study. Patients under 18 years with a diagnosis of HL were evaluated using abdominal ultrasonography, CT scan examination of chest, ab...

To assess the responses to ATG and cyclosporin combination in patients of aplastic anemia. Twenty three (17M: 6F) patients of aplastic anemia (11 very severe aplastic anemia (VSAA) and 12 severe aplastic anemia (SAA), were administered antithymocyte globulin and cyclosporin. The median age of patents was 8 years (range 6-12 years). Three patients d...

Prevalence of asthma is increasing and a lot of developments have occurred in its management. Most of the patients can be very well managed in office practice and only a minority of patients requires emergency care or hospitalization. Clinical staging of asthma has made the decisions for drug therapy easy and objective. Inhaled drugs have made mana...

The authors have focussed in this article on normal physical growth during puberty and events during adolescence with a brief mention of pubertal disorders.

Epidemiologic studies in India show that the prevalence of asthma is increasing, but no genetic studies have been reported on the Indian population thus far. We selected the IFNG locus on 12q21 as a candidate gene for asthma on the basis of its role in pathophysiology and positive linkage demonstrated in other populations. The aim of this study was...

Utility of C-reactive protein (CRP) latex agglutination test in meningitis was evaluated. Serum CRP test was positive in 100% cases of meningitic groups and 53% cases of "no meningitis (NM)" group. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) CRP test was positive in 100% cases of pyogenic meningitis, whereas it was negative in 95% cases of tuberculous meningitis and...

Nine infants suffering from congenital cytomegalovirus infection were studied for clinical features with special reference to hematological manifestations. The mean age of appearance of first clinical symptom of disease was 14 days and mean age at presentation was 58 days. Significant pallor, thrombocytopenia and evidence of hemolysis were present...

A family with olivopontocerebellar atrophy is presented. Out of 7 siblings two male and one female were involved at a similar age of 5 years. Early onset of the disease is striking. The index case presented with progressively increasing choreiform movements and cerebellar signs. Magnetic resonance imaging morphology revealed the diagnosis.