Serial haemorheological changes in malnourished African children

Malnutrition is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the developing nations, and it is a problem which concerns about half of the worlds children. A total of 50 malnourished children were monitored along with 50 apparently healthy controls, aged 4-9 years for a period of four weeks after admission using haemorheological parameters as monitoring indices for recovery. The malnourished children had significant lower body weight, upper arm circumference and triceps skin fold thickness (P < 0.001). Plasma fibrinogen (PF), plasma viscosity (PV) and packed cell volume (PCV), were estimated. The PF (p < 0.001), PCV (P < 0.001) and PV (p < 0.001) values were significantly lower in the malnourished patients compared with controls. These parameters rose significantly throughout the four weeks of treatment. There was significant positive linear correlation between PCV vs fibrinogen (r = 0.665, P < 0.00137), PCV vs plasma viscosity (r = 0.575, P<0.00797), and fibrinogen vs plasma viscosity, (r = 0.581, P < 0.00718) in the malnourished patients. We suggest that rheological parameters could be a useful indices for monitoring response in African malnourished patients to treatment.