Synopsis of Article (Portuguese)
A Severe Aplastic Anemia is a rare disease that happens
in the entire world. Because the rarity, it is difficult
to characterize the features of the patients that have
this disease, and to find their possible etiological
factors. PURPOSE: To report all cases of severe aplastic
anemia in young people who were attended in the hospital
and characterize some variables like age, sex, geographic
area of residence, etiologies and socioeconomic status.
METHODS:
It was done a descriptive analyze of all pediatric
patient's features (below 18 years) who came to the
hospital in 1979-1993 with severe aplastic anemia based
on the classification proposed for Camitta et al. The
data were obtained from the hospital records in 134
children, and the investigator in 79 families performed
interviews.
RESULTS:
The age ranged from 2-18 years (mean 10.89 years). The
male to female ratio was 64:70. Most of the patients came
from urban zone of south Brazil. We did not identify any
etiologic agents in 34% of the cases. Prior exposure to
the agricultural pesticides and benzene derivative was
the most common etiologic factors that were related. The
household income of 83.5% of the families was < $ 65
U.S./capita, and 70.9% of the patient's mother did not
finish the primary school
CONCLUSION.
In this group, severe aplastic anemia is more frequent in
11 years old girls. Most of them are the in urban zone of
south Brazil, with low socioeconomic status, and related
prior exposure agricultural pesticides and benzene
derivative.
Rev Assoc Med Bras. 2002 Jul-Sep;48(3):263-7.
[Severe aplastic anemia in children]
[Article in Portuguese]
Fonseca TC, Paquini R. Departamento de Pediatria,
Hospital de Clínicas, Universidade Federal do Paraná,
Curitiba, PR, Brazil. skil@pucsp.br