ANEMIA IN CHILDREN WITH PALMAR PALLOR AGED 02 MONTHS TO 05 YEARS

Objective: To determine the frequency of anemia in children with palmar pallor aged 02 months to 05 years Patients and Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study of six months (01-12-2012 to 31-05-2013) was conducted in the department of paediatrics at Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad. All the children, from 02 months to 05 years, of either gender had palmar pallor on examination were recruited and evaluated for anemia by assessing the level of haemoglobin and categorized anemia as mild, moderate and severe. The data was analyzed in SPSS version 16.00, the frequency and percentage was calculated. The chi-square test was applied at 95% confidence interval and the p- value ?0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: During 06 month study period total 137 children with clinically palmar pallor aged 02 months to 05 years were evaluated for the anemia biochemically by assessing the level of haemoglobin level. The mean age ±SD of overall children was 2.95±6.86, while the mean age ± SD of male and female children was 3.21±4.62 and 2.63±3.72 respectively. The anemia was observed in 94(68.6%) in children with palmar pallor (p = 0.01), of which 70(89.7) were males and 24(40.7%) were females (p <0.01). Majority of children were between 01 ? 03 years (p=0.04) while as far as severity is concerned, 27(28.7%) had mild anemia, 32(34%) had moderate anemia and 35(37%) had severe anemia (p=0.04). Conclusion: The palmar pallor sign is a sensitive and valuable tool and specific sign of anemia when used by the IMCI-trained pediatrician Key Words: Anemia, Palmar pallor and Haemoglobin