Citologia de impressão conjuntival em crianças desnutridas graves hospitalizadas Conjunctival impression cytology in children hospitalized with severe malnutrition

Abstract

OBJETIVOS: avaliar os achados da citologia de impressão conjuntival (CIC) em crianças com desnutrição energético protéica (DEP) grave, hospitalizadas no Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira (IMIP). MÉTODOS: estudo descritivo, tipo série de casos, realizado no período de agosto de 2005 a maio de 2006, envolvendo 41 crianças de um a 60 meses, com desnutrição grave (peso/altura OBJECTIVES: to evaluate conjunctival impression cytology (CIC) findings in children hospitalized with severe energy protein malnutrition at the Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira (IMIP). METHODS: a descriptive case series study was carried out between august 2005 and may 2006 with 41 children aged between 1 and 60 months with severe malnutrition (weight/height < -3DP and/or edema -NCHS standard). The CIC technique used followed the standard norms established by the validation study. The slides were examined by two independent observers. RESULTS: the age of cases varied from one to 47 months, with a median of nine months. An abnormal CIC pattern was observed in 46.3% of children. Forty percent of cases of abnormal CIC (marginal (-) and deficient), also presented edema. CONCLUSIONS: the high prevalence of abnormal CIC results found here justifies the standard treatment of high doses of vitamin A for cases of severely malnourished children admitted to hospital.

Keywords

• Transtornos da nutrição infantil
• Deficiência de vitamina A
• Conjuntiva
• Citologia
• Xeroftalmia
• Child nutrition disorder
• Vitamin A deficiency
• Conjunctiva
• Cytology
• Xerophthalmia