Subject(s)
HIV Envelope Protein gp120/chemistry , HIV Infections/virology , HIV-1/classification , HIV-2/classification , Peptide Fragments/chemistry , Adolescent , Adult , Amino Acid Sequence , DNA, Viral/chemistry , DNA, Viral/genetics , Female , Ghana , HIV Envelope Protein gp120/genetics , HIV-1/genetics , HIV-2/genetics , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Molecular Sequence Data , Peptide Fragments/genetics , Phylogeny , Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Sequence Analysis, DNAABSTRACT
We report clinical data and autopsy renal histology in 78 patients who died from chronic renal failure in Ghana. There were 78 patients, 54 male and 24 female, and the majority were aged between 20 and 50 years. The major causes of chronic renal failure were hypertensive renal damage (38 patients) and chronic glomerulonephritis (33 patients). The most common glomerular lesion leading to end-stage renal failure was a focal segmental sclerosing glomerulonephritis. It is possible that some of these segmental sclerosing glomerular lesions were secondary to glomerular hyperfiltration caused by reduced renal mass from hypertension-induced glomerular ischaemia. A public health programme leading to better awareness of the importance of detecting hypertension and having this treated could be a major contribution to reducing by at least half the number of deaths from renal failure reported here.
Subject(s)
Hypertension/complications , Kidney Failure, Chronic/etiology , Kidney Failure, Chronic/pathology , Adolescent , Adult , Africa , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Child , Female , Humans , Kidney/pathology , Kidney Glomerulus/pathology , Male , Middle Aged , Tropical ClimateABSTRACT
Autopsy liver specimens from 22 kwashiorkor children in Ghana were analysed for the presence of aflatoxins using both high performance liquid chromatography and thin layer chromatography. Aflatoxin B1 was found in the livers of 20 subjects and aflatoxicol in the livers of the remaining two subjects. These results confirm previous findings of aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxicol in the livers of children with kwashiorkor and provide further evidence of associations between these toxic compounds and kwashiorkor which might have relevance to the aetiology and pathogenesis of this disease which as yet remain mysterious.
