Nutritional status in pediatric patients with predominant antibody deficiency

Predominant antibody deficiency is the most frequent group of innate immunity errors, but information about patients’ nutritional status is scarce.

To characterize the nutritional status of Colombian patients with predominant antibody deficiencies.

Material and methods. We analyzed medical charts of patients with predominant antibody deficiency in a pediatric hospital in Bogotá.

We analyzed 55 medical charts. The most frequent diagnoses were specific deficiencies of polysaccharide antibodies and immunoglobulin A, common variable immunodeficiency, and agammaglobulinemia. More than 70% of the patients had sinopulmonary infections, with pneumonia being the most frequent, followed by otitis and sinusitis. In children under five years, 45% had adequate weight for their height, 18% had a risk of malnutrition, and 18% had moderate acute malnutrition. Four-point-five percent had obesity, 4.5% showed overweight, and 9% had a risk of being overweight. Of those older than five years, 54% had an adequate body mass index, 22.5% showed overweight, 9.6% were at risk of thinness, and 9.6% were thin. We found that the risk of short stature and short stature per se were more frequent than the expected height in these patients. The percentages of patients with short stature were higher than those reported nationally.

Due to the epidemic of childhood obesity, it will be more frequent to find overweight or obesity in children above five years. Therefore, finding short stature could be a more sensitive alarm sign for predominant antibody deficiency.