doiSerbia

Benign transient hyperphosphatasemia in children

Radlović Nedeljko (Serbian Medical Society, Academy of Medical Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia)
Leković Zoran (University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia + University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia)
Radlović Vladimir (University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia)
Dučić Siniša (University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia + University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia)
Golubović Zoran (University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia + University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia)
Mladenović Marija (Valjevo Medical Centre, Valjevo, Serbia)
Mahmutović Meho (Novi Pazar General Hospital, Novi Pazar, Serbia)
Pavićević Polina (University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia + University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia)
Đurićić Goran (University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia)
Petrović-Tepić Snežana (University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Medicine, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Hezegovina)

Introduction/Objective. Benign transient hyperphosphatasemia (BTH) is a pathogenetic insufficiently clear clinical entity that is mostly seen in infants and young children. The objective of this paper is to present our experience regarding the age of occurrence, the conditions of the discovery, and the length of duration of BTH in children. Methods. The study was realized on a sample of 18 children, nine boys and nine girls, aged 10–42 (21.06 ± 9.35) months with BTH. The diagnosis of BTH is based on the absence of bone and hepatobiliary diseases, and its spontaneous disappearance over the course of several months. Results. One patient was in the first year, 13 in the second, three in the third, and one in the fourth. Isolated high activity of serum alkaline phosphatase, which was 2.04–21.9 (8.05 ± 5.31) times above the upper reference value for the corresponding age, in 14 cases it was found during the acute diarrhea, and in four with acute rhinopharyngitis, of which in two complicated with otitis media. The cause of diarrhea in six cases was rotavirus, in two Campylobacter, and in one adenovirus, and otitis media in one case was caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, while in others, etiologic factors of infection were not identified. Spontaneous normalization of serum alkaline phosphatase activity was recorded between one and three months after the onset. Conclusion. BTH is a harmless biochemical disorder that spontaneously subsides within three months after initial observation. It is found randomly as a routine laboratory finding most often within the treatment of acute gastrointestinal and respiratory infections.

Keywords: benign transient hyperphosphatasemia, diagnostics, children