The Importance of Customized Biometric Correlations in the Prevention of Growth and Development Disorders – A Determining Factor in the Social Integration of Children and Adolescents with Mental Disabilities

Abstract

This research illustrates a complex, observational, longitudinal, comparative and noninterventional biometric study on the evaluation, in dynamics, of stature-weight development, in children with Down syndrome (DS), compared to children with varying degrees of mental retardation (MR), by repeatedly determining their height and weight, as well as by correlating these two parameters, in order to highlight the harmonious or disharmonious aspect of their stature-weight development. For this purpose, from patients’ medical files, we extracted the data regarding the periodic, annual, height and weight determinations of 50 preschoolers and schoolchildren, institutionalized in two Special Schools in Bucharest, which we compared with the standard tables used for Romanian population. The results showed that all children with DS show a disharmonious stature-weight development, with excess weight, as a consequence of both chromosomal trisomy and associated congenital malformations, especially heart malformations. In children with MR, the results showed a great phenotypic variability in terms of their stature-weight development. Thus, there were several cases in which the stature-weight development was harmonious, but, in the vast majority of cases, the results showed the presence of harmonious stature-weight development periods, which alternate with disharmonious stature-weight development periods, with weight surplus or weight deficit, alternation, which can be explained both by the involvement of genetic factors, and especially by the involvement of environmental, exogenous or endogenous factors.

Folic Acid and Its Role in Oral Health: A Narrative Review

“…Down syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21, resulting from an error in cell division called "non-disjunction" (Figure 1) [36]. In 95% of cases, the additional chromosome is of maternal origin [37][38][39].…”

“…In 95% of cases, the additional chromosome is of maternal origin [37][38][39]. Clinically, Down syndrome, one of the most frequent congenital birth defects, can be defined as a syndrome with characteristic facial dysmorphism, short stature, and severe mental retardation [36,40,41].…”

Folic acid and its implications in genetic pathology

“…Down syndrome is due to the excess of genetic material belonging to extrachromosome 21 [27]. Clinically, Down syndrome can be defined as a syndrome with characteristic dysmorphia, saturated hypotrophy and severe mental retardation [27][28][29].…”

“…These statistics show that young mothers have a lower risk of giving birth to children with Down syndrome [29]. However, there is a fairly high percentage of such young mothers, whose cause of chromosome 21 failure is more difficult to explain and has long been unknown [27].…”

Analogy between the oral microbial flora found at the level of carious lesions, endodontic spaces and prosthetic components

“…Through the intake of carbohydrates in large quantities, carious disease appears, one of the most frequent pathologies of the oral cavity in recent decades [6][7][8][9]. Untreated carious processes cause, most of the time, irreversible changes on the dental tissues, and thus patients can present from a specific endodontic pathology, to complicated carious processes, accompanied by partial or total edentations [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”