Kwashiorkor

The protein-calorie malnutrition occurs in two clinical picture: marasmus and kwashiorkor. Marasmus is a state of malnutrition due to lack of calories. Kwashiorkor dependent protein food insufficiency in spite of adequate caloric intake. Kwashiorkor is a language spoken in Ghana and means "the sickness struck the greater when the child is born", that is, when the older child deprived of breastfeeding and weaning to look at diet, particularly carbohydrates. Children with kwashiorkor presenting general edema, short stature, pale, intestinal disorders, anemia, changes in hair (in pigmentation, tensile strength, and sometimes loosening the roots of alternating bands produce discoloration and pigmentation called "flag sign"). Children may have a misleading appearance of fat-dependent general edema. Another feature of kwashiorkor is hepatomegaly and manifestations Less vitamin.

Total calorie diets lack protein disproportionate sometimes produce a mixture of marasmus and kwashiorkor syndrome. All forms of protein-calorie malnutrition is common in almost all developing countries and underdevelopment in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These countries are losing not only make children more vulnerable to infectious diseases, but once contracted can be fatal, because their immune systems are not functioning properly due to the state of malnutrition. A child with kwashiorkor who have contracted an infectious disease at high risk of developing bacterial septicemia.

Changes in organ kwashiorkor primarily affects the liver (hepatomegaly), gastrointestinal mucosa and the hemopoietic system. Kwashiorkor, marasmus and fatty liver is characterized by changes that may result from the decrease in lipoprotein synthesis. In kwashiorkor the mucosa of the small intestine is usually atrophy, and in severe cases complete loss microbellosidades events and villi, and there is also the loss of enzymes of the small intestine, which usually manifests as disaccharidase deficiency. Anemia is often exacerbated by intestinal parasites such as hookworm simultaneously.