{"title":"Prevalence of peripheral neuropathy in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia: A hospital-based cross-sectional study.","authors":"Aniruddha Rathore, Mukesh Dhankar, Sharmila B Mukherjee, Suvasini Sharma, Shailaja Shukla, Piali Mandal","doi":"10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_289_24","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of Peripheral Neuropathy (using nerve conduction studies (NCS)) in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia aged between 5 to 18 years and to study its correlation with chronic anemia, ferritin levels, chelation status, annual transfusion requirement, deficiency of serum Vitamin B12, and Folate levels.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 100 eligible children were enrolled in a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi, India. Neurological examinations focusing on peripheral neuropathy followed by NCS were performed on all the patients. Age-wise cutoff values outside of 2.5 SD of normal were taken as abnormal.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>None of the children had clinical features of peripheral neuropathy, although 77% had abnormalities in NCS. Of these, 33% had pure motor nerve changes, 7% had pure sensory nerve changes, 1% had abnormal F responses, and 26% had mixed nerve changes. These changes correlated significantly with chronic anemia and duration of iron chelation but not with other factors.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>In children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia who do not exhibit any neurological signs or symptoms, however, it is not uncommon to observe abnormal NCS at an average hemoglobin (Hb) level of less than 9.5 g/dl. Further comprehensive case-control studies are necessary to determine if a more specific Hb target range of 9.5 to 10.5 g/dl is appropriate and to investigate the potential impact of chelation therapy on these changes.</p>","PeriodicalId":15856,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care","volume":"13 12","pages":"5847-5852"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11709020/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_289_24","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/12/9 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PRIMARY HEALTH CARE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of Peripheral Neuropathy (using nerve conduction studies (NCS)) in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia aged between 5 to 18 years and to study its correlation with chronic anemia, ferritin levels, chelation status, annual transfusion requirement, deficiency of serum Vitamin B12, and Folate levels.
Methods: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 100 eligible children were enrolled in a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi, India. Neurological examinations focusing on peripheral neuropathy followed by NCS were performed on all the patients. Age-wise cutoff values outside of 2.5 SD of normal were taken as abnormal.
Results: None of the children had clinical features of peripheral neuropathy, although 77% had abnormalities in NCS. Of these, 33% had pure motor nerve changes, 7% had pure sensory nerve changes, 1% had abnormal F responses, and 26% had mixed nerve changes. These changes correlated significantly with chronic anemia and duration of iron chelation but not with other factors.
Conclusion: In children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia who do not exhibit any neurological signs or symptoms, however, it is not uncommon to observe abnormal NCS at an average hemoglobin (Hb) level of less than 9.5 g/dl. Further comprehensive case-control studies are necessary to determine if a more specific Hb target range of 9.5 to 10.5 g/dl is appropriate and to investigate the potential impact of chelation therapy on these changes.