[Spinal diseases in a rheumatology hospital unit in Lomé (Togo)]. / Pathologie rachidienne en consultation rhumatologique à Lomé (Togo).

A retrospective study was conducted to determine the different kinds of spinal diseases in patients attending the rheumatology unit of Lomé hospital, Togo. Among the 4927 patients seen over a 5-year period, 1966 (40%) had spinal involvement. The disease observed were as follows: degenerative spinal disorders: 1872 cases (95%); infectious discitis: 41 cas (2.1%); spondyloarthropathies: 33 cases (1.8%); tumors: 20 cases (1.1%). Degenerative spinal involvement affected mainly lumbar and cervical spine. The only unusual clinical feature was that Schober's index was often normal. Lumbar spinal stenosis was common (233 cases, 12.4%), especially in females, and occurred at an earlier age than in the Western world. Ankylosing spondylitis features included mildness of extra-articular manifestations and an often negative family history. Pott's disease was de leading cause of infectious discitis. The present study suggests that spinal disorders are as frequent in Africa as in Western countries.

Les aspects psychosociaux de la transfusion autologue differee au Togo

Une enquete hospitaliere etudiant les facteurs psychosociaux de la transfusion autologue differee a ete menee au CHU de Lome sur une periode de dix mois allant d'avril 1990 a janvier 1991. Au total 45 malades de 15 a 65 ans ont ete enquetes dont 26 hommes et 19 femmes. La transfusion autologue differee (ATD) est une therapeutique transfusionnellle qui etait totalement inconnue de tous nos malades. Malgre cette meconnaissance de l'A.T.D.; elle a ete acceptee par la grande majorite (89;89 pour cent) de nos malades qui l'ont effectivement subie apres une explication detaillee de sa realisation et de ses avantages. Les principaux motifs d'acceptation de cette therapeutique etaient: la recherche de securite transfusionnelle; la recherche d'une satisfaction morale qui etait inherente au caractere mystique que l'Africain donne au sang; et le desir d'etre vite opere. [abstract terminated]

[Degenerative spinal disease in an outpatient clinic in Lomé (Togo)]. / Pathologie dégénérative du rachis en consultation hospitalière à Lomé (Togo).

A survey was conducted to determine the frequency and semiological characteristics of degenerative spinal disease in patients attending a hospital rheumatology outpatient clinic in Lomé, Togo. Seven hundred and one of the 1,821 patients seen over a two-year period had degenerative spinal disease. Spinal disease included lower back pain (n = 385), lumbar and radicular pain suggestive of disk protrusion (n = 137), lumbar and radicular pain with claudication suggestive of stenosis of the spinal canal (n = 42), dorsal pain (n = 24), cervical pain (n = 68) and cervical and brachial pain (n = 45). Clinical patterns were similar to those seen in Western countries. However, lumbar and radicular pain with claudication suggestive of stenosis of the spinal canal occurred at a younger age and mainly affected females. These data are in contrast with previous studies suggesting that lumbar and radicular pain due to disk protrusion and stenosis of the spinal canal are uncommon in Black Africa.

On vector-valued asymptotic martingales.

In contrast to the vector-valued martingale which converges strongly almost everywhere if and only if the Banach space E has the Radon-Nikodym property, the vector-valued asymptotic martingale converges strongly almost everywhere if and only if E is of finite dimension.