Prevalence of Rickets regarding to maturity in children less than 3years - old attending Tikrit Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background Rickets is a condition associated with bone-deformity due to inadequate mineralization in growing bones. rickets of prematurity is a well-'t known condition that predisposes to pathological fractures in . This study aims at identifying the prevalence of rickets in preterm and term babies z ,study the risk factor of the disease as age ,sex type of feeding and biochemical and radiological changes_ Patients & Methods: A case control study done on 200 case with different ages from I moth to 3 years were taken 50 cases of them were preterm babies and 150 twere term babies, Patients were studied by history (sex ,age, type of feeding ,residence and clinical feature)and investigation (serum Ca ,ph and alkaline phosphatase) and diagnosis depend on radiological feature. The Results: About 19 cases (38%) of preterm babies were diagnosed as rickets of 4 prematurity ,15 cases(10%)were ricketic in term babies Residence were not risk factor in preterm but risk factor in term babies Breast feeding was risk factor in 
2" both term and preterm babies . Most common age was between 2 and 12 months in re- p term babies . Serum level of calcium was normal in the majority of the cases in both term and preterm babies , serum phosphorus level was low in most of the cases specially in preterm babies Alkaline phosphatase elevated in 90% of cases diagnosed as rickets . iv Conclusions: The rickets is an important disease to be studied in this country account about nearly half of cases of preterm babies and about 10% of term babies .Breast feeding is a risk factor of the disease ,Alkaline phosphatase activity I and radiological feature are important for screening