Objective: To compare weight for height (WHZ) and mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) to diagnose malnutrition in children aged 6–59 months and to determine the association of various risk factors with the nutritional status of the children. Methods: Descriptive study conducted at the Department of Paediatric Medicine of The Children’s Hospital Lahore from May 2017 to April 2018. A total of 257 children 6 to 59 months of age having MUAC of <125mm were included. WHZ scoring was done and compared with MUAC. Results: There was slight male predominance 135 (52.5%). Mean age of children was 13.43 + 8.81 months (95% CI: 12.34-14.51). Mean MUAC was 103±13.5 mm (95%CI: 101-105mm). Exclusive breast feeding was present in 82 (32%). Maternal illiteracy was common in SAM (p = was 0.001). More children (73.2%) were identified as SAM by MUAC of <115 mm as compared to WHZ of <-3SD (70%). The ROC curve analysis for MUAC (cut-off value:103, 95%CI; AUC: 101-107 mm) showed it as an excellent predictor (p=<0.001) for children having SAM and WHZ <-3SD, with (AUC= 0.786 [95%CI; 0.725-0.848]). Conclusion: Both MUAC and WHZ showed fair degree of agreement to diagnose moderate and severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6–59 months. At the community level of resource limited countries, MUAC can be used as an appropriate rapid diagnostic method to identify malnourished children to be managed in nutritional rehabilitation programs. How to cite this:Bari A, Nazar M, Iftikhar A, Mehreen S. Comparison of Weight-for-Height Z-score and mid-upper arm circumference to diagnose moderate and severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(2):---------.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.2.45 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Clinical features in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: differences by gender Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is more prevalent in men, population studies show a ratio of 2:1, however in clinical studies the frequency is as high as 6:1. These differences in the clinical setting may be a consequence of variations in the reporting of symptoms in men compared to women. Objective: To evaluate gender differences between women and men with recent diagnosis of OSA. Patients: A cross-sectional, study of patients undergoing home sleep apnea testing (HSAT) with clinical suspicion of OSA. Demographic, anthropometric, comorbidities and HSAT variables were collected. We performed t student analysis, Mann-Whitney test or chi square test as appropriate. Results: 1,044 patients were included:

Objectives: To determine the etiology of Fever of Unknown Origin (FUO) in children. Study Design: Prospective Observational study. Setting: Department of Pediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital, Lahore. Period: August 2019 to January 2020. Material & Methods: A total of 45 children aged between 01 to 180 months (15 years), having FUO were included. FUO was defined as a temperature of greater than 100.4ºF documented by a health care provider, persisting over a period of three weeks and for which no cause could be identified after at least 8 days of evaluation. All the study information was analyzed by using standard software SPSS 20. The quantitative variables like age and duration of fever before hospital admission were presented as mean and standard deviation. Qualitative variables like sex, antibiotic therapy use before definitive diagnosis and various diagnoses made were presented as frequencies and percentages. Results: The patient’s age range was from 01 to 180 months with mean of 80±45.12 months and male to female ratio was 2.2:1. Definitive diagnosis was made in 37(82.2%) patients. Infections were the predominant cause of FUO (44.4%) followed by malignancy (24.4%). Tuberculosis was the most common infection while Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia dominated the malignancy. Systemic lupus erythematosus was the most commonly diagnosed connective tissue disorder.  There was a significant association between duration of fever and the ultimate diagnosis (p=0.01). Conclusion: Infectious diseases were the most common cause of FUO followed by malignancy, connective tissue disorders and miscellaneous causes.

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