In mid-1993 Ecuador's Health Research Institute conducted a survey to evaluate the general nutrition and vitamin A status of children in five provinces (three in the mountains and two on the coast) containing pockets of extreme poverty. The survey enrolled 1555 children 12-59 months old who constituted a multi-phased stratified cluster sample obtained by random selection methods. Among its othe...

BACKGROUND Vitamin A deficiency is a major public health nutrition problem, affecting an estimated 190 million preschool-aged children and 19 million pregnant and lactating women globally, and 83 million adolescents in Southeast Asia alone. Its consequences (disorders) include xerophthalmia (the leading cause of early childhood blindness), increased severity of infection, anemia, and death. Bec...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence of anaemia and subclinical vitamin A deficiency among adolescent schoolboys in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, and to identify factors related to anaemia and vitamin A status. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. SETTING Government high schools in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 381 boys, aged 11-16 years, from 10 schools in Dhaka City p...

BACKGROUND Night blindness is a visual disorder associated with unusual vision during the night or in darkness. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which is easily preventable, is the main known etiology of night blindness. Malnutrition is a common health issue in Bashagard and some other areas in the Hormozgan province of Iran. The aim of the current study was to determine the prevalence of night blin...

Nutritional anaemia and vitamin A deficiency are two of the most prevalent nutritional problems in the developing countries (United Nations Administrative Committee on CoordinationlSubcommittee on Nutrition, 1992). Anaemia affects over one billion people, particularly women of reproductive age and preschool children in tropical and sub-tropical zones. Over 40% of all women in developing countri...

Vitamin A deficiency may occur after malabsorptive bariatric surgery. However, it rarely entails important functionally limiting symptoms. We present the case of a woman who underwent bariatric surgery and developed ocular dryness, xeroderma and hearing loss due to severe vitamin A deficiency. We illustrate an outstanding and exceptional case of the consequences of an excessive and uncontrolled...

I . Lysozyme activity was estimated in plasma and leucocytes of twelve children suffering from kwashiorkor, thirteen children with ocular signs of vitamin A deficiency and ten apparently normal children acting as controls. 2. The results showed that the activity of lysozyme in leucocytes was significantly reduced in children with kwashiorkor and in vitamin A-deficient children. Following therap...

It’s not clear what ‘indicator variables’ are: rephrasing for clarity would be useful. NDS response to reviewer: These ‘indicator’ or proxy variables for biochemical measurement of VAD are mentioned in the background section and are not essential for the abstract. The sentence has been deleted.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the iron nutritional status of children from 6 to 59 months of age and its relation to vitamin A deficiency. METHOD Cross-sectional study involving 100 children, living in nine cities in the state of Paraíba, which were selected for convenience to form two study groups: children with vitamin A deficiency (serum retinol < 0.70 μmol/L; n = 50) and children without vitamin ...

The ability to store and distribute vitamin A inside the body is the main evolutionary adaptation that allows vertebrates to maintain retinoid functions during nutritional deficiencies and to acquire new metabolic pathways enabling light-independent production of 11-cis retinoids. These processes greatly depend on enzymes that esterify vitamin A as well as associated retinoid binding proteins. ...