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Biomedical subjects

J Chhatwal

Publications and source records attributed to J Chhatwal.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Prevalence of anemia among urban school children of Punjab.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of anemia among urban school children of Punjab. DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Urban schools of Ludhiana, Punjab. SUBJECTS: Two thousand school children of 5-15 years age. METHODS: Relevant history was taken and a complete physical examination done in all the children. Hemoglobin was estimated using cynmethemoglobin method and peripheral blood smears were also examined. Anemia was diagnosed when hemoglobin was less than 11 g/dl for children of 5-6 years age and 12 g/dl for more than 6 years age. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of anemia was 51.5%. Girls had a significantly higher prevalence of anemia except at 5 years and 10-12 years age. More menarcheal girls were anemic as compared to non-menarcheal ones. The prevalence of anemia was high (38%) even in higher socioeconomic groups. Nearly half (47.6%) of well nourished children were anemic. The mean Hb also was lower than expected normal values in both nutritional groups. Compared to non-vegetarians (38%), more vegetarians (65.9%) were anemic. The commonest blood picture seen was microcytic hypochromic (55.4%). CONCLUSIONS: The present study revealed a high prevalence of anemia among healthy urban school children of higher socio-economic classes. Vegetarians and girls, especially after menarche were more at risk to develop anemia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Biophysical profile of blood pressure in school children.

The study was conducted in an industrial and prosperous city of Punjab to evaluate the biophysical profile of blood pressure (BP) in apparently healthy school children. A total of 2560 children between the ages of 5-15 years were enrolled. Their age, religion, dietary and family history were recorded. Weight and height of all children were measured and body mass index (BMI) calculated. A value of 2.26 or more was taken as obesity. BP measurements were made as per recommendations of the American Heart Association. Systolic as well as diastolic BP increased with age in both sexes, correlation coefficients being 0.59 and 0.6, respectively. A statistically significant linear relationship between BP and weight and height was noted. Children with BMI of > 2.26 had a significantly higher BP (P < 0.01). The mean BP did not vary among different religions. The BP of vegetarians and also non- vegetarians also did not differ. A family history of hypertension was associated significantly with elevated BP (p < 0.01). It is concluded that obesity and a family history of hypertension in children are associated with elevated BP and such children may be at risk for developing hypertension at a later date. They should be followed up and considered for modification of risk factors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Antenatal period: an educational opportunity.

In this study the impact of an educational programme during antenatal period was evaluated. Pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic formed the study material. The first 100 mothers who were not given health education served as controls. The subsequent 201 cases constituted the study group and were given health education on certain aspects of maternal and child care. The control and study groups were well matched for age, parity, education, income and number of antenatal visits. The results indicated that the mothers in study group gained statistically significant knowledge regarding the purpose of antenatal care, hematinics and tetanus toxoid vaccination. The awareness regarding breast feeding and its advantages also increased significantly in the study group. The knowledge about individual vaccine especially measles and DPT was poor which increased significantly after the educational intervention in the study group. It is recommended that the antenatal period should be optimally utilized to impart health education on the various aspects of maternal and child health.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1995

Predictive utility of clinical and stool parameters in bacterial diarrhoea in children.

A prospective one year study was conducted on children between the ages of 1 month to 5 years hospitalised in the pediatric ward of Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, with the aim of determining the predictive utility of certain clinical and stool parameters in diagnosing bacterial diarrhoea. Among the 204 children enrolled in the study, fever was observed in 40% in both the culture positive and negative groups. Clinical features such as abdominal distension, vomiting and oliguria although had low positive predictive values, their negative predictive values were high. Among the stool parameters, watery consistency and pus cells > 5 HPF were significantly more often observed in culture positive cases. The presence of mucus and pus cells > 5 HPF had good sensitivity (70-80%) but poor specificity (27-40%), while the reverse was true of blood (sensitivity 23%, specificity 89%). Again the positive predictive values were uniformly low while the negative ones were high. In conclusion the clinical and stool parameters were found to be more useful by their absence than by their presence in excluding a positive stool culture.

Bacterial Infections↗
PubMed1994

Refractive errors in preterm babies.

Fifty preterm neonates were followed up at the age of 6 months and 1 year. In addition to developmental assessment, a complete ophthalmological examination was done on both visits. The largest (62%) gestational age group was of 34-36 weeks. At 6 months, none of the infants had normal vision. At 1 year of age, 64% of the babies had normal vision while incidence of myopia and hypermetropia was 16% and 20%, respectively. There was an inverse relationship noted between gestation and incidence of refractive errors. It was also noted that with decreasing weight, the incidence of myopia increased. Myopia was seen exclusively among infants of birth weight of 2000 g or less. Birth weight had a significant positive correlation with astigmatism. No correlation of asphyxia with refractive errors was observed. It is recommended that all preterm babies should have an ophthalmological examination at one year of age with follow up later on.

Anisometropia↗
PubMed1994

Waning of post vaccinial allergy after neonatal BCG vaccination.

Tuberculin sensitivity or post vaccinial allergy (PVA) is widely used as an indicator of successful BCG vaccination. The protection conferred by BCG vaccination, the duration of post-vaccinial allergy and the relationship between the two remain a subject of controversy. The present study was conducted with the aim of finding the duration of PVA and evaluate the need for revaccination. One thousand newborns were given BCG under controlled conditions and followed up for PVA by serial PPD (5TU) injection at 3, 6, 12, 24, 30 and 36 months. An induration of 5 mm or less was recorded as negative and no subsequent testing was done. At 3 month, all the infants were given PPD and 95.3% showed a positive response. The positivity rate declined significantly (p < 0.01) to 19% by 3 years of age. A statistically significant (p < 0.01) fall in the mean PPD induration size was also noted. At 3 months, the mean induration size was 10.68 mm but by 3 years it had decreased to 3.86 mm. The distribution of PPD size also showed that with the increase in age, there was a shift towards the smaller size. At 3 years of age, none of the children had an induration of more than 10 mm. The booster effect due to repeated PPD testing was seen in a small percentage and only at 6 and 12 months test. Subsequently no increase in PPD induration was noted. Sex of the child did not influence the PPD induration size significantly (p > 0.05). At 3, 6 and 12 months of age, significant correlation between BCG lesion and PVA was noted, the co-efficient of correlation being 6.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Safe motherhood: when to begin.

Two thousand five hundred college girls were assessed for their knowledge and attitudes regarding sex, pregnancy and child rearing with the help of a pretested questionnaire. The site of menstruation was known to only 35.3% of the girls. The knowledge about the time and site of conception was 25.3% and 58.2%, respectively. Only 16.3% of the respondents knew the normal route of delivery although the duration of normal pregnancy was known to majority (87.7%). The girls were aware of the ideal timing of abortion (67.5%) but the safe method and legality were poorly known facts. Only 5% of the girls believed in pre-marital sex. More than half (54.9%) of the girls knew about some form of contraceptive, Copper-T being the best known. Nearly one fifth of the girls were either undecided or wished family members to decide about antenatal check-ups. The need for better diet and injections during pregnancy was well known although few (15.2%) were aware of the injections being tetanus toxoid. Only about 10% wanted a home delivery but one fourth felt that a Dai or a relative was suitable for conducting the delivery. An overwhelming majority of the students stated that knowledge about above facts was important and they would like to learn about them preferably during college education. It is recommended that 'Family life education' be provided during pre-adolescent and adolescent years to ensure a safe motherhood and a healthy child.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Obesity and hypertension in children.

A study was conducted on two thousand five hundred and sixty school children to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension in apparently healthy school children of a prosperous, industrialized city of Punjab. The children belonged to 5-15 years age group of both sexes. The weight (kg) was taken by a standardized weighing machine while height was measured using a calibrated bar. For diagnosing obesity, the body mass index (BMI) was calculated by the formula: [formula: see text] A value of > or = 2.26 was considered as obesity. Blood pressure (BP) measurements were taken by a a mercury sphygmomanometer as per the recommendations of American Heart Association. Hypertension was diagnosed if blood pressure was more than 95th percentile for the age. Family history of hypertension was enquired from the parents of children. The BP of the hypertensive children was reassessed after six and nine months. The prevalence of hypertension was 2.8% at the first screening but decreased to 1.3% and 1.1% by 6 and 9 months, respectively. This fall was statistically significant (p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of hypertension between the two sexes. At the final screening, only children of 11 years or above were hypertensive. A statistically significant correlation with positive family history of hypertension was noted; 85.7% of hypertensive children had positive family history. The prevalence of hypertension was much higher in obese as compared to non-obese children (13.7% vs 0.4%). The correlation between obesity and hypertension was statistically significant (p < 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Neonatal conjunctivitis: a profile.

Neonatal conjunctivitis is one of the commonest infections encountered in the newborn. A prospective study was conducted on all babies born over a period of one year. No prophylactic ocular medication was instilled routinely in newborns. Babies developing purulent eye discharge were diagnosed to have conjunctivitis. Eye Swab from the neonates and maternal vaginal/cervical swabs were sent for culture. Chloromycetin eye drops were used for treatment and in case of no response, changed as per sensitivity report or to gentamicin eye drops. Oral erthromycin was given for dacryocystitis or when there was no response to topical therapy. The incidence of conjunctivitis was 7.2%. Two seasonal peaks, namely, February and then May and June, were noted. In 91.6% of the babies, conjunctivitis developed within the first week. A prolonged rupture of membranes was associated with a significantly higher incidence of conjunctivitis (p < 0.01). The most common organism grown from conjunctival swab was Staph aureus (35.2%) followed by Enterococcus (4.3%), Klebsiella (3.5%) and E. coli (2.8%). From vaginal/cervical swabs, E. coli was the most common organism isolated. No concurrence of organisms was noted between eye swabs and vaginal/cervical swabs. A uniformly good response to chloromycetin eye drops was noted with only 3.5% requiring a change of therapy. It is concluded that neonatal conjunctivitis is commonly acquired postnatally and responds well to topical chloromycetin therapy. Oral erythromycin may be used in resistant cases which will cover the chlamydial infection also.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1991

Measurement of neonatal skinfold thickness--is it of any clinical relevance?

The skinfold thickness (SFT) was measured in 750 Punjabi newborns at triceps and subscapular sites using a Harpenden's Caliper. It was correlated with various maternal and neonatal factors. SFT increased with increasing gestation but showed a decline after 40 weeks. There was a positive correlation of SFT with birth weight and length of the baby in both sexes. The correlation co-efficient for all these parameters was 0.9. The female babies had a higher SFT at all weight and length groups. Increasing maternal age, parity, weight and height all influenced the neonatal SFT positively. Mothers with higher SFT produced babies with more skinfold thickness. Similar relationship was observed between birth weight and these maternal factors. While severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia led to a significant fall in SFT, hypertension alone did not affect it. A higher than normal SFT was seen among infants of diabetic mothers. It was concluded that the SFT does not give any additional information than that provided by the commonly measured parameters like birth weight and length.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Hydatid disease.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Congenital malformations--a retrospective study of 10,000 cases.

The frequency of congenital malformations in a retrospective study done on 10,000 consecutive births from January 1983 to March 1989 was 3.6%. The predominant system involved was CNS. Major malformations constituted 79.7% of the total. Malformations were seen 4 times more often among still births. The common malformations in still births were also of CNS. The frequency of malformations was similar in both the sexes, though genitourinary anomalies were commoner among male, while anencephaly in female babies. A statistically significant increase in the frequency of congenital malformations was observed with decreasing gestation and birth weight. There was a significant correlation between maternal factors, like previous abortions, drug intake and fever during 1st trimester, diabetes mellitus, pre-eclamptic toxemia, antepartum hemorrhage and congenital malformations in the baby.

Adult↗