Protein calorie malnutrition (PCM) is not uncommon in many tropical and subtropical countries.1 Though some of the clinical features of this syndrome may vary from country to country, the fundamental picture is of a child who fails to thrive, who is subject to frequent attacks of diarrhea, is peevish, irritable, often edematous, and who has characteristic hair and skin changes.
A significant association between malnutrition and pancreatic calcification in adults has been well described in many tropical countries.2-4 These large series include reference to a few children. Joffe5 described a 12-year-old child with pancreatic calcification probably secondary to malnutrition. In view of the relative rarity of this condition in children, we report here another case in a 13-year-old Ceylonese girl.
Report of a Case
This 13-year-old girl was the second of a family of seven children, born at full term, but weighing only 2.0 kg (4 lb