Night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency associated with resected adenocarcinoma of the pancreas

【正】Dear Sir,W e write to present a rare case of night blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency secondary to resected adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.To our knowledge this is the first reported case of this association.A 62 year-old man presented to the eye clinic with a 12mo history of worsening nyctalopia and colour perception.

Vitamin A supplement: a key strategy to prevent vitamin A deficiency among young children in Afghanistan

Background:Vitamin A deficiency is the main problem of public health worldwide demonstrated that 190 million population of preschool children and 122 countries(in Africa and South-East Asia)have vitamin A deficiency,according to recent estimated research.In Afghanistan,vitamin A supplementation is a key strategy to prevent vitamin A deficiency among young children.Children receive vitamin A supplements as part of National Immunization Days(NID)campaigns.Methods:In this case study,the data was collected from June 15/2015 to February 23/2016,and the final report of the Afghanistan Demographic Health Survey(AfDHS)2015 was released on February 15/2017.All 27,209 children aged 6-59 months who are living with their mothers were included in this study.Who consumed foods rich in vitamin A was not included in this study.Results:The percentages who were given vitamin A supplements in the last 6 months among all children 6-59 months aged.A total of 1,572 children aged among 6-8 months were given vitamin A supplements 670(42.6%)children and comparison with the total community of the study(27,209)children(2.46%).A total of 1,148 children aged among 9-11 months were given vitamin A supplements to 465(40.5%)children and comparison with the total community of the study(27,209)children(1.70%).Conclusion:After following up on more studies,we found that vitamin A deficiency is a public problem,thus it is better to use wheat flour fortification,vitamin A capsule(VAC)supplementation,nutrition education,source of vitamin A,and training of primary healthcare workers on the clinical to prevent and treat the vitamin A deficiency among children.Therefore,we aimed to determine the given vitamin A supplementation among children aged 6-59 months in 33 provinces in Afghanistan,in 2015.

Vitamin A deficiency suppresses CEACAM1 to impair colonic epithelial barrier function via downregulating microbial-derived short-chain fatty acids

Vitamin A (VA) plays an essential role in modulating both the gut microbiota and gut barrier function.Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs),as metabolites of the gut microbiota,protect the physiological intestinal barrier;however,they are compromised when VA is deficient.Thus,there is an urgent need to understand how and which SCFAs modulate colonic epithelial barrier integrity in VA deficiency (VAD).Herein,compared with normal VA rats (VAN),at the beginning of pregnancy,we confirmed that the colonic desmosome junction was impaired in the VAD group,and the amounts of acetate,propionate,and butyrate declined because of the decreased abundance of SCFA-producing bacteria (Romboutsia ,Collinsella ,and Allobaculum ).The differentially expressed genes correlated with the gut barrier and the histone deacetylase complex between the VAD and VAN groups were enriched by RNA sequencing.In the VAD group,the expression levels of colonic CEA cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) were down-regulated,and the levels of histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and HDAC3 were up-regulated.Intriguingly,the above changes in the VAD groups were rescued by VA supplementation in the early postnatal period.Further study indicated that in Caco-2 cells,butyrate treatment significantly repressed the enrichment of HDAC3 on the promoter of the CEACAM1 gene to induce its expression.Our findings support that butyrate intervention can alleviate the impairment of colonic barrier function caused by VAD,and timely postnatal VA intervention may reverse the damage caused by VAD on gut barrier integrity during pregnancy.

Ocular Manifestations in Severe Acute Malnutrition in Children under 60 Months in a Secondary Health Center

Introduction: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is one of the main public health problems in the world. It is responsible in addition to the general symptoms, vitamin A deficiency which can cause serious eye damage including keratomalacia. This work aims to study possible ophthalmological lesions in severely acutely malnourished children from 0 to 60 months. Patients and Method: This study was carried out in a secondary ophthalmology center. It concerned all severely acute malnourished patients admitted for consultation in the pediatric department. Results: A total of 174 eyes of 87 children aged 0 to 60 months were examined. Two-thirds of the patients were aged between 6 and 18 months. Palpebral lesions are rare, however, we observed 12.64% blepharitis and palpebral dermatitis. Ocular involvement due to vitamin A deficiency was 6.9%, including one case of BITOT SPOT, 4 cases of conjunctival xerosis and one case of keratomalacia. Conclusion: Xerophthalmia is an ocular lesion due to a dietary intake deficient in vitamin A that occurs during severe acute malnutrition. Its occurrence is increasingly rare even in developing countries. However, some cases are observed in practice and may be responsible for profound visual impairments.

Ocular Manifestations in Severe Acute Malnutrition in Children under 60 Months in a Secondary Health Center

Introduction: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is one of the main public health problems in the world. It is responsible in addition to the general symptoms, vitamin A deficiency which can cause serious eye damage including keratomalacia. This work aims to study possible ophthalmological lesions in severely acutely malnourished children from 0 to 60 months. Patients and Method: This study was carried out in a secondary ophthalmology center. It concerned all severely acute malnourished patients admitted for consultation in the pediatric department. Results: A total of 174 eyes of 87 children aged 0 to 60 months were examined. Two-thirds of the patients were aged between 6 and 18 months. Palpebral lesions are rare, however, we observed 12.64% blepharitis and palpebral dermatitis. Ocular involvement due to vitamin A deficiency was 6.9%, including one case of BITOT SPOT, 4 cases of conjunctival xerosis and one case of keratomalacia. Conclusion: Xerophthalmia is an ocular lesion due to a dietary intake deficient in vitamin A that occurs during severe acute malnutrition. Its occurrence is increasingly rare even in developing countries. However, some cases are observed in practice and may be responsible for profound visual impairments.