Diagnostic Accuracy of the Leishmania OligoC-TesT and NASBA-Oligochromatography for Diagnosis of Leishmaniasis in Sudan

The leishmaniases are a group of vector-borne diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. The parasites are transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies and can cause, depending on the infecting species, three clinical manifestations of leishmaniasis: visceral leishmaniasis (VL), post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) and cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) including the mucocutaneous form. VL, PKDL as well as CL are endemic in several parts of Sudan, and VL especially represents a major health problem in this country. Molecular tests such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or nucleic acid sequence based assay (NASBA) are powerful techniques for accurate detection of the parasite in clinical specimens, but broad use is hampered by their complexity and lack of standardisation. Recently, the Leishmania OligoC-TesT and NASBA-Oligochromatography were developed as simplified and standardised PCR and NASBA formats. In this study, both tests were phase II evaluated for diagnosis of VL, PKDL and CL in Sudan

May Measurement Month 2018: a pragmatic global screening campaign to raise awareness of blood pressure by the International Society of Hypertension

Aims Raised blood pressure (BP) is the biggest contributor to mortality and disease burden worldwide and fewer than half of those with hypertension are aware of it. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global campaign set up in 2017, to raise awareness of high BP and as a pragmatic solution to a lack of formal screening worldwide. The 2018 campaign was expanded, aiming to include more participants and countries. Methods and results Eighty-nine countries participated in MMM 2018. Volunteers (≥18 years) were recruited through opportunistic sampling at a variety of screening sites. Each participant had three BP measurements and completed a questionnaire on demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive medication. In total, 74.9% of screenees provided three BP readings. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to impute missing readings. 1 504 963 individuals (mean age 45.3 years; 52.4% female) were screened. After multiple imputation, 502 079 (33.4%) individuals had hypertension, of whom 59.5% were aware of their diagnosis and 55.3% were taking antihypertensive medication. Of those on medication, 60.0% were controlled and of all hypertensives, 33.2% were controlled. We detected 224 285 individuals with untreated hypertension and 111 214 individuals with inadequately treated (systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg) hypertension. Conclusion May Measurement Month expanded significantly compared with 2017, including more participants in more countries. The campaign identified over 335 000 adults with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. In the absence of systematic screening programmes, MMM was effective at raising awareness at least among these individuals at risk

Detection of Kidney Cancer Using Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna Array

The use of a circularly polarized patch antenna array to detect kidney cancer by microwave techniques is proposed in this paper. A four-element linear antenna array is designed and fabricated at the ISM frequency of 2.4 GHz. The dimensions of the antenna array are 200 mm $\times78$ mm. The single element is a square patch with side length of 30 mm. The distance between patches is chosen to be 20 mm which ensures that mutual coupling between any two adjacent patches is less than 20 dBs. The substrate is a FR-4 material of relative permittivity 4.3 and thickness 1.6 mm. The circular polarization has an axial ratio of 0.8 dB at 2.4 GHz. The bandwidth at S11 = −10 dB is 7.23 %. Renal system phantom consisting of kidney cortex, renal capsule, ureter, adrenal gland, muscle, fat, and skin is used. Four stages of renal cancer tumors are considered depending upon the tumor size in each stage. The presence of a tumor causes an increase in the reflection coefficient (S11) and a shift in resonance frequency, which can be used to identify cancer. The increase in reflection coefficient and the shift in resonance frequency are calculated for each stage of the cancer tumors. The shift in resonance frequency for the early stages is too small. Therefore, detection depends mainly on the increase in S11. The shift in resonance frequency and increase in S11 are large for advanced stages of the tumor, which makes detection easier. Computed specific absorption rate (SAR) is found to be less than the safety levels, which means this technique is safe to use. Overall, this work suggests a new simple detection technique of kidney cancer. The advantages of this technique are: safe, compact, fast, inexpensive, comfortable examination, non-invasive, and finally non- ionizing radiation during measurement