1Post Graduate Resident, Department of Pediatrics, Muzaffarnagar Medical College & Hospital, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh
2Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Muzaffarnagar Medical College & Hospital, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh
3Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Muzaffarnagar Medical College & Hospital, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh
4Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Muzaffarnagar Medical College & Hospital, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh
*Address for Correspondence: Dr. Bhavya Sharma, Department of Pediatrics, Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Email: bhavyasharma1988@gmail.com
Online published on 14 October, 2016.
Anemia is one of the most commonly encountered clinical entities in children. The causes of anemia in India are different from that in the western world, because of high prevalence of malnutrition & infection. Severe anemia i.e. Hb%<8g/dl in adolescents and school going children and <7g% in pre-school children is responsible for high mortality and morbidity in children. Hence, the present study was done to know the etiology, hematological changes, clinical presentation age and sex distribution of severe anemia in infancy and childhood, so that effective preventive and curative measures can be taken to decrease the incidence of severe anemia.
Prospective study
200 children whose Hb% was <8g/dl were studied. Detailed clinical evaluation and hematological investigations were done in every case. Some other investigation wherever required were also done.
In the present study more than half of the case were seen in age group of 0–5 years (i.e. 60%). A great majority (90%) of the children were malnourished. The most common type of anemia was iron deficiency anemia (61.5%), followed by hemolytic anemia (28.5%), malaria being the major cause.
Severe anemia is very common in under 5 children and most of these children had iron deficiency anemia.
Anemia, Nutritional Deficiency anemia, Iron Deficiency Anemia, Malnutrition, Malaria
