Objective: To evaluate and compare the effectiveness of zinc and B-Complex supplementation to prevent the recurrence of nephrotic syndrome in the cases priory responsive to corticosteroid therapy. Methodology It is a randomized controlled trial conducted at OPD Pediatric medicine, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University, PIMS Children Hospital Islamabad from October 3, 2016 to April 2, 2017. 192 patients (96 in each group) were included in the study after obtaining informed consent from parents or guardians taken before determining the population. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups (Group 1: Zinc and Group 2: B-Complex) to receive oral zinc sulphate (10 mg / day) or B-Complex using a random number table. The patients were followed up after 4 months. All data were collected by the researchers themselves in a structured form. Results: The age of 192 participants of the trial averaged 6.38±3.42 years of age ranging from 1-12 years. There were 88 (45.8%) men and 104 (54.2%) women cases. In group 1, there were 22 (22.9%) and in group 2, there were 47 (49%) cases that had been pardoned. The recurrence of nephrotic syndrome was significantly higher in group 1 than group 2 (p = <0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that Zinc supplementation is more preferrable to B-Complex supplementation as the rate of continuous remission was higher in the zinc group, so in the future may be added to the treatment regimen to treat steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome.

Objective: This study was designed to find out the frequency of cystic fibrosis in children with recurrent respiratory infections by performing a sweat chloride test.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out from 1st September 2015 to 28th February 2016 in the department of Pediatric Medicine at the Children’s Hospital and the Institute of Child Health, Lahore after ethical approval. A total of 300 cases of recurrent respiratory tract infections were included. The sweat chloride test was done by using pilocarpine-induced iontophoresis and measuring chloride levels on the forearm or thigh by sweat analyzer at the time of induction. Cystic fibrosis was labeled if sweat chloride level ranges above 60 mEq/L. Data was collected on Performa and SPSS version 23 was used to analyze the data. Results: Mean age of patients was 6.24 ± 2.7 years with 52.7% males and 47.3% females. Most patients (86.3%) have more than 5 episodes of respiratory infection in a year. Cystic fibrosis was diagnosed in 19 (6.3%) patients. There was no relationship between the frequency of respiratory infections in a year and cystic fibrosis (p-value 0.78).Conclusion: This hospital-based study showed quite a high incidence of cystic fibrosis in our population. So facilities including neonatal screening along with sweat chloride testing and genetic analysis should be increased.

Objective: This study was conducted to compare epinephrine and salbutamol nebulization in emergency management of moderately ill children less than one and a half years old with bronchiolitis in terms of mean change in respiratory distress assessment instrument (RDAI) score. Materials and Methods: Randomized controlled design was selected in this trial at the Department of Pediatrics, KRL Hospital Islamabad, Pakistan from 24th April 2016 to 24th October 2016. Sixty children with acute bronchiolitis, having a moderate degree of illness (RDAI 8-15) were included in this study. Patient were randomly allocated into Group A (epinephrine = 0.1 mL/kg in concentration of 1:10000) and Group B (salbutamol = 0.15 mg/kg combined with 3 mL 0.9% normal saline). It was delivered by a nebulizer and a face mask with a continuous flow of 6 L/min at100% oxygen. Data was collected on a predesigned performa and assessed with reference to mean change in RDAI score. Results: The patients ' mean age in Group A and Group B were 10.57±4.22 and 11.63±3.14 months, respectively. The majority of the patients were males (56%). The mean RDAI score was insignificant between the two groups, both at baseline (11.57±2.21 in epinephrine group vs 11.3±2.14 in salbutamol group, p = 0.63) and 125 minutes (4.77±2.19 in Epinephrine group vs 5.43±1.69 in Salbutamol group, p = 0.19). However, when stratified according to age and gender, the mean RDAI score was found statistically significant among the 2-12 months age group (p = 0.0045) and female gender (p = 0.0052). Conclusion: Epinephrine and salbutamol have similar effects in acute bronchiolitis when compared with regards to mean change in RDAI score.

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