Correspondence DIETARYCHLORIDEDEFICIENCY To the Editor: Further information has become available concerning dietary chloride deficiency since our pape...
Correspondence DIETARYCHLORIDEDEFICIENCY To the Editor: Further information has become available concerning dietary chloride deficiency since our paper "Cerebral Dysfunction Following Dietary Chloride Deficiency" [1} was accepted. In the past month I completed a review of Syntex Corporation's compilation of some 480 cases, more recently updated to include laboratory data, and found that in 175 cases in which appropriate laboratory studies were done, 163 (91%) had documented hypochloremia and/or metabolic alkalosis. Since the few patients with normal studies did not undergo systematic or sequential studies of electrolytes and acid-base balance, some of them may also have had the metabolic disorder. Therefore, it appears that the key metabolic disturbance associated with malnutrition and deceleration of brain growth in these children was present in nearly every child who was appropriately tested. The figure for cognitive dysfunction in our group of patients, which we cited as statistically significant (p = .09), was so identified
based on our belief that these 22 children could not be considered representative of the 400 or more children's records compiled by Syntex to mid-1984. However, because the updated information indicates that these 22 children are indeed metabolically representative of more than 400 children who ingested Neo-Mull-Soy ®, it is evident that both the deceleration of brain growth and the occurrence in this group of cognitive deficits is statistically significant (p < .001). Abe M. Chutorian, MD Neurological Institute New York, NY References [1] Chutorian AM, LaScala CP, Ores CN, Nass R. Cerebral dysfunction following infantile dietary chloride deficiency. Pediat Neurol 1985;1:335-41.
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