Prognostic Significance of Serum Biochemistry Profile in Children With Severe Acute Malnutrition

Background Malnutrition is a condition caused by defective nutrition in which either deficiency or excess of energy, protein, or micronutrients cause any measurable adverse effects on tissues/body form (body shape, size, composition), function, and clinical outcome. Children with a weight-for-height below-3 standard deviations (SD) of the mean based on the WHO standards have a high risk of death exceeding nine-fold that of children with a weight-for-height above 1 SD. In severe acute malnutrition (SAM) liver function tests, renal function tests, and serum electrolytes are deranged but their correlation with the prognosis is not well defined. So, there was a need for a study to know the prognostic significance. For this purpose, the current study was conducted in the pediatric ward of Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences (UPUMS), Saifai, UP, India.Method This is an observational cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, UPUMS (Saifai, UP, India) from January 2018 to July 2019 after approval from the institutional ethical committee. We enrolled 100 children with SAM who fulfilled the inclusion criterion after obtaining proper and well-informed consent.Result We studied children aged six to 59 months. The mean age of admitted patients in our study was nearly 24 months (24.18 months). The median age that was most common at the time of admission is nearly 1 year (13 months). In our study relation of serum sodium and serum potassium with the survival of SAM was found statistically significant.Conclusion Severe acute malnutrition is both a medical and social disorder. The risk of mortality increases as the severity of malnutrition increases. High-risk cases can be identified and can be treated aggressively and on a priority basis. Serum electrolyte disturbances in SAM are one of the most important predictors of the severity.