USAGE OF A RAPID DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR MALARIA IN CHILDREN.

BACKGROUND: Malaria is still the primary cause of pediatric deaths. The efficient management of pediatric malaria requires its rapid and accurate diagnosis. To fulfill this requirement, rapid diagnostic tests have been developed, but their evaluation before commercialization is never exhaustive. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a rapid diagnostic test (SD Bioline Malaria Antigen P.f/Pan) to diagnose malaria in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Testing was conducted on children aged between 6 months and 15 years who were examined at the "Centre Mère Enfant (CME) of the "Chantal Biya" Foundation (FCB). as a result of fever. Enrollment took place from April to October 2014. All children presenting with fever were sampled (3ml of blood). These blood samples were tested for malaria using microscopy on a thick blood smear and by a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) SD Bioline Malariae Antigen P.f/Pan. RESULTS: A total of 249 children were enrolled in this study. Malaria presence as determined by microscopy and by RDT was 30.9% and 58.2% respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values compared to microscopy were: 75; 48.8; 39, and 81.6%. With these performances, the malaria SD Bioline rapid test presents lower values compared to WHO recommendations for rapid tests (sensitivity > 95%) in children. CONCLUSION: SD Bioline Malaria Antigen P.f/Pan test should only be used in peripheral health structures that lack resources, and should be aided by clinical diagnosis.

Comparison of hysterosalpingograms with laparoscopy in the diagnostic of tubal factor of female infertility at the Yaoundé General Hospital, Cameroon.

INTRODUCTION: The objectives were to assess the diagnostic value of hysterosalpingography (HSG) with laparoscopy as gold standard in the evaluation of tubal patency and pelvic adhesions in women suffering from infertility. METHODS: We conducted a comparative cross sectional study on 208 medical files of infertile women followed up at the Yaoundé General Hospital during a period of five years (December 2007 to December 2012). Tubal patency, hydrosalpinx and pelvic adhesions detected at HSG were compared with laparoscopic findings as the gold standard. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and diagnostic accuracy of HSG were calculated with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Mean age of the patients was 31.4 ± 6.45 years. Secondary infertility was the most frequent type of infertility (66.82%). HSG had a moderate sensitivity (51.0%; 95% IC. 37.5-64.4), high specificity (90.0%; 95% IC.74.4-96.5), high PPV (89.3%; 95% IC. 72.8-96.3) and a moderate NPV (52.9%; 95% IC. 39.5-65.9) in the diagnosis of bilateral proximal tubal occlusion. Concerning, distal tubal patency, HSG had a high sensitivity (86.8%; 95% IC. 76.7-92.9), low specificity (42.2%; 95% CI. 29.0-56.7), moderate PPV (69.4%; 95% IC. 58.9-78.2) and a moderate NPV (67.9%; 95% IC. 49.3-82.0) in the diagnosis of bilateral or unilateral distal tubal occlusion. However, HSG had a low diagnostic value (27.8%; 95%IC.18.8-39.0) in the pelvic adhesions. CONCLUSION: HSG is of limited diagnostic value in tubal factor infertility and is of low diagnostic value for pelvic adhesions.

Aphakia correction by injection of foldable intra ocular lens in the anterior chamber.

We assessed the outcomes of the use of anterior chamber foldable lens for unilateral aphakia correction at the University Teaching Hospital of Yaounde. In this retrospective, non-comparative, consecutive case series study, we reviewed the records of patients who underwent an operation for aphakia correction by the means of injection of an angular supported foldable lens between January 2009 and December 2011 in the University Teaching Hospital Yaounde. Student's paired t-test was carried out to compare pre-operative and post-operative visual acuity (VA) and intraocular pressure (IOP). P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Twenty-one patients were included in the study; twelve were male (57.1%) and nine were female (42.9%). The mean age was 55.38 ± 17.67 years (range 9-75 years). The mean follow-up duration was 5.95 ± 3.14 months (range 2-12 months). The mean log-MAR visual acuity was 1.26 ± 0.46 pre-operatively and 0.78 ± 0.57 post-operatively (P = 0.003). The change in intraocular pressure was not statistically significant. Complications included intraocular hypertension (over 21 mmHg) in 3 patients (14.3%) and macular edema, pupillar ovalization, and retinal detachment in one patient each. The results indicate that injection of an angular support foldable lens in the anterior chamber is a useful technique for the correction of aphakia in eyes without capsular support. More extended follow-up, however, and a larger series of patients are needed to ascertain the effectiveness and safety of this procedure.

Using Bayesian Networks to Model Hierarchical Relationships in Epidemiological Studies / 한국역학회지

OBJECTIVES: To propose an alternative procedure, based on a Bayesian network (BN), for estimation and prediction, and to discuss its usefulness for taking into account the hierarchical relationships among covariates. METHODS: The procedure is illustrated by modeling the risk of diarrhea infection for 2,740 children aged 0 to 59 months in Cameroon. We compare the procedure with a standard logistic regression and with a model based on multi-level logistic regression. RESULTS: The standard logistic regression approach is inadequate, or at least incomplete, in that it does not attempt to account for potentially causal relationships between risk factors. The multi-level logistic regression does model the hierarchical structure, but does so in a piecewise manner; the resulting estimates and interpretations differ from those of the BN approach proposed here. An advantage of the BN approach is that it enables one to determine the probability that a risk factor (and/or the outcome) is in any specific state, given the states of the others. The currently available approaches can only predict the outcome (disease), given the states of the covariates. CONCLUSION: A major advantage of BNs is that they can deal with more complex interrelationships between variables whereas competing approaches deal at best only with hierarchical ones. We propose that BN be considered as well as a worthwhile method for summarizing the data in epidemiological studies whose aim is understanding the determinants of diseases and quantifying their effects.