REGULAR FOLLOW-UP IN CHILD HEALTH AND EARLY RECOGNITION OF PRIMARY IMMUNE DEFICIENCY DISORDERS

DOI: 10.26650/IUITFD.348181 Objective: The primary goals of good child care are the assessment of growth and development, early detection of diseases in children at risk, and constructing an algorithm for these children. The aim of our study was to diagnose primary immunodeficiencies before the occurrence of symptoms through child health monitoring. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the medical files of 18 children suffering from severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) who were diagnosed between January 2011 and September 2016 in Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital. The presence and recurrence of oral candidiasis and the blood lymphocyte counts at the time of diagnosis were recorded from the files. Cases with bone marrow transplantation and related complications were also recorded. Results: Ten of the study subjects (55.5%) were alive, and 8 patients (44.4%) had died from infections. At the time of diagnosis, a history of recurrent oral candidiasis was present in 83.3% (n=15) and lymphopenia in complete blood cell counts was present in 77.7% (n=14) of the children with SCID. A total of 14 patients had received BCG vaccinations before the diagnosis of SCID, 12 patients had undergone bone marrow transplantations, and 7 patients had developed BCG-related complications. Conclusion: Vaccination is one of the most important issues in the field of preventive pediatric health care. We believe that before the first live vaccine (the BCG vaccine), the presence or a history of recurrent or recalcitrant oral candidiasis must be evaluated to both increase the vaccine safety and potentially help the diagnosis of SCID