SELENIUM IN MALNOURISHED SUDANESE CHILDREN - STATUS AND INTERACTION WITH CLINICAL-FEATURES

Plasma selenium (Se), haemoglobin (Hb) and packed cell volume (PCV) we re measured in 53 malnourished Sudanese children, age 6-36 months, and 11 children who had tuberculosis. Twelve healthy well-nourished child ren served as controls. The mean(+/- SD) plasma Se (mg/kg) was 0.05 (0 .036), 0.070 (0.040), 0.063 (0.015), 0.73 (0.012), 0.082 (0.014) in ch ildren with kwashiorkor/marasmic kwashiorkor (oedematous group), maras mus, tuberculosis and healthy controls. The mean Se level in the vario us groups showed a significant difference (p < 0.002). Whereas the oed ematous group differed significantly from the rest, there was no diffe rence between the means of the marasmic, underweight, tuberculous pati ents and controls. The mean plasma albumin (+/- SD) in oedematous grou p was 19.6 (6.6) g/l and ranged between 22.6 (5.0) and 33.1 (3.0) in t he other groups. A significant positive correlation was found between plasma Se level, albumin, Hb and PCV (respectively, r = 0.46, p < 0.00 01; r = 0.37, p < 0.001; r 0.36, p < 0.002).