Vitamin A Deficiency Due to Selective Eating as a Cause of Blindness in a High-Income Setting.
Pediatrics
; 141(Suppl 5): S439-S444, 2018 04.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29610168
ABSTRACT
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble micronutrient involved in the regulation of several physiologic functions, such as visual acuity, epithelial tissue integrity, immune response, and gene expression, thus playing a crucial role in childhood growth and development. Although vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in resource-limited settings is still an actual issue and represents the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness, its occurrence in high-income countries is rare, although possibly underdiagnosed because of its nonspecific early manifestations. A good awareness of VAD symptoms and risk factors could aid its early diagnosis, which is fundamental to undertake a prompt treatment and to prevent ocular complications. Nevertheless, the role of restrictive dietary habits, increasingly common in developed countries, is often overlooked in infants and children. We present a case of VAD with permanent ocular sequelae in a 5-year-old girl from a high-income country. In the case described, VAD ensued from a highly restricted diet, mainly limited to oat milk, which had been followed for more than 2 years. This child presented with ocular symptoms, opportunistic infection, anemia, poor growth, and a diffuse squamous metaplasia of the bladder; after commencing retinol supplementation, a gradual healing of clinical VAD manifestations occurred, with the exception of the ocular sequelae, which resulted in irreversible visual loss.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Deficiência de Vitamina A
/
Cegueira
/
Dieta
/
Comportamento Alimentar
/
Relações Mãe-Filho
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
/
Screening_studies
Limite:
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
País como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article