Assessment of control of bronchial asthma in children using Childhood Asthma Control Test.

Background. The use of Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) has been advised for monitoring asthma control by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines. Objective. To validate the tool C-ACT for the assessment of control of asthma and to examine the correlation between C-ACT score and lung function assessed by forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). Methods. This was a prospective observational study conducted between January 2010 to January 2011. Children diagnosed to have bronchial asthma and aged 5 to 14 years, were enrolled in the study. Asthma severity and control status were classified according to the National Asthma Education and Prevention Programme (NAEPP) and GINA guidelines, respectively. Patients were followed-up at three and six months and C-ACT and spirometric measurements were obtained. Results. Significant positive correlations were found between C-ACT score and FEV1 at enrollment (r=0.772) (p<0.001), three months (r=0.815) (p<0.001) and at six months follow-up (r=0.908) (p<0.001). Baseline C-ACT score was useful for predicting the levels of control of asthma upto three months (0.004), but not at six months follow-up (0.787). A cut-off C-ACT value of >19 had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and area under the curve (AUC) 98.5%, 89.1%, 94.9%, 96.6%, 0.717, respectively for the control of asthma. Conclusion. C-ACT is a simple and feasible tool to assess and predict the levels of control in children with bronchial asthma upto three months.

Systemic lupus erythematosus in childhood--a review of 11 patients at a single center in eastern Nepal.

We retrospectively evaluated the clinico-laboratory features of 11 children and adolescents with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus between the period of 2001 and 2006. All of them (100.0%) had renal involvement at the first visit in the hospital. Female to male ratio was 10:1. Skin and or mucosal involvement (90.9%), periorbital puffiness and or pedal edema (81.8%), fever (72.7%), hypertension (72.7%), and reticuloendothelial involvement (72.7%), were the commonest presentations. All patients had anemia (8.6 +/- 1.5 gm/dl), raised ESR (46.7 +/- 9.4 mm in first hour), proteinuria, and in disease activity as evident by raised ESR and positive anti-dsDNA antibody at the first visit. The mean duration of disease was 7.6 months and the average duration of disease activity was 63.18 days. Renal biopsy was performed in 8 patients: class IV lupus nephritis in 4 patients (50.0%), class II in 2 patients (25.0%), class III and V in patient (12.5%) each. Nephrotic range proteinuria and hypertension was observed in all patients of class IV and V of lupus nephritis. Class II and III lupus nephritis patients' were normotensive and had non-nephrotic range proteinuria. Three out of 11 patients (27.2%) expired. The commonest primary determinant of mortality was uncontrolled disease activity in 2 patients (66.6%). The third one had infection and developed disseminated intravascular coagulation. The mean duration of disease activity in patients who died (mean 30 days) was statistically lower than the survival group (75.6 days) (p < 0.01). Renal involvement during first visit and mortality could be attributed by late referrals and diagnosis at hospital.