losartan-potassium and Respiratory-Tract-Infections

To study the effect of infection on iron status in children suffering from acute, mild or severe respiratory infections and to determine the nature of anemia in infection using serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) levels.. Forty-three children aged between 3 and 5 y with no evidence of infection and receiving iron supplements in the preceding 100 days served as controls. Twenty-one children with mild upper respiratory infection and 94 children hospitalized for acute pneumonia constituted the experimental group. Hemoglobin (Hb), sTfR and serum ferritin were estimated in all the children at the time of diagnosis and again on the 15th and 30th days after the infection in those who were available for follow-up.. Mean (95% CI) sTfR was 6.08 (5.1-7.1) mg/l in healthy non-anemic children. Upper respiratory infection had no impact on Hb or sTfR but it significantly elevated serum ferritin levels. Eighty-three percent of the children with pneumonia had Hb less than 110 g/l at the time of diagnosis and had elevated mean sTfR, 18.0 (15.7-20.3) mg/l. There was a decline in mean sTfR by the 15th day of infection to 14.3 (11.3-17.4) mg/l with further rise to 22.9 (13.0-31.9) mg/l by 30 days. Serum ferritin was significantly elevated at the time of diagnosis (85.9; 71.1-100.8 micro g/l) as well as at 15 days (89.1; 68-110.1 micro g/l) with a decline by 30 days.. Severe lower respiratory infection exaggerates iron-deficient erythropoiesis by blocking release of iron from the storage pools. sTfR may not be a sensitive and specific tool of assessing true iron status of children exposed to severe infections.

Topics: Acute Disease; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency; Child, Preschool; Erythropoiesis; Erythropoietin; Female; Ferritins; Hemoglobins; Humans; Iron; Iron Deficiencies; Male; Pneumonia; Receptors, Transferrin; Respiratory Tract Infections; Time Factors

Reticulocyte hemoglobin content (CHr) has recently become available as a direct marker of the iron status in hemodialysis patients undergoing recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) therapy. This study evaluated the stability of CHr in hemodialysis patients with acute infectious disease.. We retrospectively selected 22 hemodialysis patients who had acute respiratory tract infection and who showed transient elevation of C-reactive protein (CRP), and we investigated changes in parameters for erythropoiesis, iron status, and inflammation, i.e., hematocrit (Ht), transferrin saturation (TSAT), CHr, serum ferritin, and CRP, in the preinfection, infection, and postinfection phases. Throughout the observation period, doses of rHuEPO and iron supplements had not been changed. We divided the patients into two groups, those who showed a decrease in Ht in the infection phase (group 1; n = 12) and those who did not show a change in Ht in this phase (group 2; n = 10). We defined the differences between the parameters in the preinfection phase and the infection phase as Delta, and performed correlation analysis between them.. CRP in group 1 was significantly higher than that in group 2 in the infection phase. In group 1, TSAT significantly decreased, from 32.9 +/- 8.8% (preinfection phase) to 16.9 +/- 5.0% (infection phase), and CHr also significantly decreased, from 33.1 +/- 1.5 pg to 30.4 +/- 2.0 pg. In group 2, however, although TSAT significantly decreased, from 34.8 +/- 4.6% to 27.0 +/- 9.3%, CHr showed no significant change (from 33.4 +/- 0.9 pg to 33.0 +/- 1.4 pg). There was a significantly high correlation between DeltaHt and DeltaCHr, but there was a low correlation between DeltaHt and DeltaTSAT ( r = 0.505; P = 0.0153 versus r = 0.175; P = 0.4420). Furthermore, the correlation between DeltaCRP and DeltaCHr was quite high ( r = -0.722; P = 0.0001).. TSAT overreacts to inflammation, failing to reveal the correct status of available iron for erythropoiesis in acute inflammatory disease, but the use of CHr is expected to avoid these disadvantages, providing a reliable direct marker of iron status in the acute infection phase.

Topics: Acute Disease; Aged; C-Reactive Protein; Erythropoietin; Female; Ferritins; Hematocrit; Hemoglobins; Humans; Iron; Kidney Failure, Chronic; Male; Middle Aged; Recombinant Proteins; Renal Dialysis; Respiratory Tract Infections; Reticulocytes; Retrospective Studies; Transferrin

Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a rare inherited disorder characterized by reticulate skin pigmentation, nail dystrophy, mucosal leucoplakia, and bone marrow failure. Pancytopenia is difficult to manage in patients with this disorder. We describe a 13-month-old-boy who presented with reticulate skin lesions, paleness, and hepatosplenomegaly. Anemia and leukopenia developed by the age of 43 months. The patient was treated with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (5 microg/kg/d, subcutaneously) for 19 months and erythropoietin (150 U/kg 3 days in a week, subcutaneously) for 8 months, with excellent neutrophil and hemoglobin response. Recurrent infections were not developed after starting GM-CSF, and packed red blood cell transfusion was not given to the patient after starting erythropoietin. GM-CSF combined with erythropoietin may be used in the treatment of bone marrow failure in patients with DC without an HLA-identical donor.

Topics: Blood Cell Count; Bone Marrow; Child, Preschool; Deferoxamine; Disease Susceptibility; Dyskeratosis Congenita; Erythropoietin; Ferritins; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor; Humans; Male; Pancytopenia; Respiratory Tract Infections

Hereditary spherocytosis (HS) is a common inherited hemolytic anemia due to red cell membrane defects. Extramedullary hematopoiesis is a compensatory response to insufficient bone marrow blood cell production. The preferred sites of extramedullary hematopoietic involvement are the spleen, liver, and lymph nodes, but in HS the posterior paravertebral mediastinum is also commonly involved. A nonsplenectomized 74-year-old man with mild HS, with primary deficiency in ankyrin, was found by magnetic resonance imaging to have thoracic paravertebral hematopoietic masses. The patient showed high serum levels of erythropoietin, which may have played a role in the development of extramedullary hematopoietic masses through a continuous hematopoietic stimulus to erythroid cells in the propositus. The long-standing history of respiratory infections and of hypoxia in the propositus may have been an additional etiological factor.

Topics: Aged; Ankyrins; Erythropoietin; Hematopoiesis, Extramedullary; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Respiratory Tract Infections; Spherocytosis, Hereditary; Thorax