Thymus gland size and mortality among children admitted with severe acute malnutrition

Time

7 May 2018, 13:00

Place

Festauditoriet 1-01, Bülowsvej 17, 1870 Frederiksberg C

Opponents

Associate Professor Christian Ritz (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Chief Physician Anja Poulsen, BørneUngeKlinikken, Rigshospitalet, Danmark

Professor, Consultant Paediatrician Jay Berkley, KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research / Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya

Supervisor

Professor Henrik Friis, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Co supervisors

Dr. Maren Rytter, Departement of Paediatrics, Herlev Hospital, Denmark

Dr. Vibeke Brix Christiansen, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Rigshospitalet, Denmark

Dr. Ezekiel Mupere, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

About the thesis

The thymus gland is an important organ in the immune system which markedly reduce in size during severe acute malnutrition. However, its size recovers during nutritional rehabilitation. The thesis describes the correlates of thymus size among children admitted to hospital with severe acute malnutrition.

The 400 children in the study received standard of care according to the national guidelines and received either probiotics or placebo daily until 8-12 weeks after discharge from hospital. During nutritional rehabilitation, we identified predictors of thymus gland recovery during inpatient care and outpatient care, and assessed the effect of probiotics on thymus gland recovery. In addition, predictors of inpatient death during nutritional rehabilitation were identified.

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