Palidez palmo-plantar como método diagnóstico de anemia leve-moderada

Abstract

Objective: to determine the palm-plant paleness’ characteristics in Colombian infant rural population, as a diagnostic method of anemia, and to establish a correlation between the finding of palm-plantpaleness and the Hematocrit values. Methodology: a cross sectional study was used to evaluate 169 boys and girls, between 2 months and 12 years old, of the rural area of San Vicente del Caguan, whoentered into a Health Campaign. Following the signature of aninformed consent, parents accept their children to participate inthe study. Those with acute or chronic pathologies were excluded. Thepresence of palm-plant paleness was determined by observers trainedin the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) Strategy.Hematocrit was measured to all children, as well as a peripheralblood smear. Interrater concordance evaluation (Kappa index) was determined through a pilot test and a validation (sensitivity,specificity) was performed, using Hematocrit as the standard.Results: 93 of the participants were male and 77 were female.45% of them had palm paleness. The Hematocrit showed anemia in 34.1%of the children. The validation analysis demonstrated a 67.2% of sensibility, a 66.6% of specificity, a 51.3% of positive predictive values and a 79.5% of negative predictive values. Hypochromic andEosinophilia were found in most of the peripheral blood smears’ children with anemia. Conclusions: although this tool presents a lowsensibility and specificity for low/moderated anemia, it is usefulfor excluding it in infants without palm paleness.

Keywords

• anemia
• palm paleness
• childhood
• hematocrit.