Breath-holding spell (BHS) is a self-limiting, age-dependent common condition in children. Here, we describe a child presenting with BHS and, on evaluation, diagnosed with an unusual etiology. A 14-mo-old girl presented with a history of frequent episodes of bluish discoloration of lips and extremities during crying since 8 mo of age. She was diagnosed with BHS locally. She had a history of noisy breathing and chest indrawing. These episodes also occurred in lying supine and during ingestion of solid foods. She was afebrile, pale, tachypneic, and had normal anthropometry but did not have clubb ..read more

We aimed to study cardiac outcomes of children with Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) at our center. We included all children diagnosed with MIS-C at our center in 2020-2021. The diagnosis and treatment were as per standard guidelines [1]. All patients underwent ECHO at baseline, 48-72 h, 2 wk, 4-6 wk, and if abnormal, every 3-6 mo. The patients were followed up till December 2022. Twenty-seven patients were diagnosed with MIS-C (10 in 2020 and 17 in 2021) with ages between 1-17 y (mean 7 y). Fifteen had a Kawasaki disease phenotype while 12 had a toxic shock phenotype. Nineteen patien ..read more

Dystonia is among the most frequently occurring pediatric movement disorders [1, 2], with heterogeneous etiology [3]. There is a paucity of large-scale Indian data on its clinic-etiological profile. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital, New Delhi, India after institutional ethical clearance. Informed consent was obtained from parents and assent from the child whenever applicable. Children between one month to 18 years of age with dystonia were recruited from pediatric services. The presence of dystonia was identified as per the Taskforce on Childhood Moto ..read more

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) in children are mainly caused by viruses [1]. ARI is the major cause of death in children in developing countries [2]. It has been observed that post-COVID-19, there is a change in the clinical spectrum of viral ARI. We studied 75 hospitalised children (1 mo to 12 y) from January to March 2023 whose nasopharyngeal and/or oropharyngeal aspirates tested positive for viral PCR. We observed that the majority were infected with adenovirus (30.6%) followed by influenza A (24%) and influenza B (16%). The common age affected was 1 to 5 y (64%). The common presentatio ..read more

Growth failure among infants under six months (U6m) of age has not received adequate attention in terms of prevention, identification, and management. We conducted this cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence and identify risk factors of underweight in infants under six months. The mother of each infant was assessed for nutritional status [weight, height, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)], history of any significant medical illness, and psychosocial status. Infants were classified as ‘At the severe risk of malnutri- tion’, ‘At moderate risk of malnutrition’, and ‘not at risk of maln ..read more

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most important opportunistic viral infection in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients [1]. There is limited data on CMV infection in Indian children where nearly 95% of the population is CMV seropositive compared to 50-70% in the developed world [2]. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of children who underwent allogenic HSCT between September 2020 and August 2022 to determine the incidence of CMV infection/ disease in the first 100 d following transplant. Our unit follows the pre-emptive strategy for managing CMV infection. Treatment was ..read more

Hypertensive encephalopathy is a treatable emergency. It is an important cause of hypertension in children that should be thought of when usual work-up for hypertension is negative. There are very few case reports of this condition in children [1]. We had four children aged 18 mo to 17 y (3 boys, 1 girl), all presented with seizures, altered sensorium and were found to have hypertension. Neuroimaging showed features of Pos- terior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) in two. Work-up for the common causes of hypertension—urinalysis, renal ultrasound and doppler, serum Vanillyl mandelic aci ..read more

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the most prevalent (9.5%) endocrine disorder in childhood [1]. Trace elements (TE) play a role either in the pathogenesis or pro- gress of DM. There is a paucity of data on TE levels in T1DM children and hence we studied serum zinc and copper levels. A prospective case-control study was conducted in a children’s hospital over 2 y where 15 children aged 1-18 y with T1DM and 15 healthy age-sex matched controls were enrolled after obtaining informed consent and ethical committee approval. Children with type 2 DM and those on mul- vitamin medications 3 mo prior t ..read more

One day in our clinical genetics OPD a mother of a child with Down syndrome (DS) while giving history of her child broke in tears saying “I feel guilty to have given birth to such a child”. It made us ponder over the issue of psychosocial health of parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID). We wish to share salient findings of our study aimed to assess the psychosocial health of parents of children with DS. There were 50 parents in the study, 25 mother-father dyads, with mean age of 33.1 y for mothers, 37.7 y for fathers and 5.9 y for children. We found that study par- ticipants ..read more

Reduced generation of multiple motile cilia caused by the CCNO gene, which plays a key role influencing the pathways controlling the ciliogenesis of multicili- ated cells (MCCs), is one of the subtypes of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) [1, 2]. Patients with CCNO mutations develop various clinical manifestations [3, 4]. Here we pre- sented one case with combined neonatal respiratory distress and diffuse bronchiolitis. An eight-year-old girl was admitted to our hospital for recurrent cough and wheeze after birth with intolerance to physical activity. She presented with dyspnea at birth and was ..read more