Tonsillar enlargement in apparently healthy adults in a rural community in Nigeria

Background: Tonsillar enlargement could worsen airway obstruction thereby causing apnea and hypoventilation. This is rarely investigated especially in developing country, hence this study which was aimed at determining the prevalence of enlarged palatine tonsils and comparing the degree of obstruction with selected anthropometric measurements in healthy adults in a rural community.Methods: A cross-sectional study of apparently healthy adults (≥ 18 years) in Oyo community, South Western Nigeria. The participants were selected using multistage random sampling technique. Interviewer assisted structured questionnaire was administered to obtain information on age, gender, occupation, history of smoking and snoring. Ear, nose and throat examination was done and Brodsky grading of tonsil documented. The neck circumference (cm), weight (kilogram) and height (meter) were measured and their Body Mass Indices (BMI) calculated. The data was analysed using IBM- Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 and text of association between tonsillar grade, and BMI and Neck circumference was performed using Chi Square.Results: Participants were 408 subjects, consisting 202 (49.5%) males and 206 (50.5%) females, the mean age was 37 ± 15.2 years. One hundred and fifteen (28.2%) participants had enlarged Palatine tonsils of which; 70 (17.2%) had grade 1 enlargement, 33(8.1%) had grade II enlargement, and 12(2.9%) had grade III enlargement. None of the participants had grade IV tonsillar enlargement. The Mean Body Mass 2 Index was 24.32 ± 4.50 kg/m and mean neck circumference was 34.08 ± 2.70cm. Palatine tonsillar enlargement was significantly associated with young age (p = 0.01), female gender (p = 0.02), and neck circumference (p =0.01), but not with high BMI (P = 0.06).Conclusion: Tonsillar enlargement is prevalent, and it is associated with young age, and female gender, but not with Body Mass Index and neck circumference.Keywords: Adults, Body mass index, Gender, Neck circumference, Palatine Tonsi

Behavioural risk-factors associated with the use of Facemask during Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period in Nigeria: online-based survey

Background:  The Coronavirus disease has rapidly become a public health challenge, with many countries adopting the usage of facemasks as one of the protective strategies against the virus. This study aimed to assess the behavioral risk factors associated with the use of facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period in Nigeria.  Methods:  The study recruited 500 participants in an online-based survey through a cloud-based platform called Google Forms. The main scales; facemask usage and behavioral risk factors were measured on a 0-27 and 0-24 point rating scale respectively, while the subscales are utilization, prevention, and perceived threats were measured on a 0-16, 0-19, and 0-5 point rating scale. Result: The usage of facemasks accounts for 32.8% (daily), 12.2% (weekly), 38.2% (monthly basis), and 16.8% use facemasks out of necessity. More than half (55.6%) use facemasks because of fear of punishment by the task force while challenges associated with the usage of facemasks include: difficulty breathing (47%) and suffocation (24%). A significant association was found between the use of facemasks and the prevention of COVID-19 (b= 0.029, 95% CI =0.055 - 0.114, p-value 0.049, r2=11.1%).  Conclusion:  The use of facemasks has become a norm and passed into law in Nigeria, however not a pleasant practice for most people Recommendation:  Therefore there is a need for mass awareness and education to improve the use of facemasks in Nigeria

Biological sample donation and informed consent for neurobiobanking: Evidence from a community survey in Ghana and Nigeria

Copyright: \ua9 2022 Singh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction Genomic research and neurobiobanking are expanding globally. Empirical evidence on the level of awareness and willingness to donate/share biological samples towards the expansion of neurobiobanking in sub-Saharan Africa is lacking. Aims To ascertain the awareness, perspectives and predictors regarding biological sample donation, sharing and informed consent preferences among community members in Ghana and Nigeria. Methods A questionnaire cross-sectional survey was conducted among randomly selected community members from seven communities in Ghana and Nigeria. Results Of the 1015 respondents with mean age 39.3 years (SD 19.5), about a third had heard of blood donation (37.2%, M: 42.4%, F: 32.0%, p = 0.001) and a quarter were aware of blood sample storage for research (24.5%; M: 29.7%, F: 19.4%, p = 0.151). Two out of ten were willing to donate brain after death (18.8%, M: 22.6%, F: 15.0%, p<0.001). Main reasons for unwillingness to donate brain were; to go back to God complete (46.6%) and lack of knowledge related to brain donation (32.7%). Only a third of the participants were aware of informed consent (31.7%; M: 35.9%, F: 27.5%, p<0.001). Predictors of positive attitude towards biobanking and informed consent were being married, tertiary level education, student status, and belonging to select ethnic groups. Conclusion There is a greater need for research attention in the area of brain banking and informed consent. Improved context-sensitive public education on neurobiobanking and informed consent, in line with the sociocultural diversities, is recommended within the African sub region

Novel functional insights into ischemic stroke biology provided by the first genome-wide association study of stroke in indigenous Africans

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Background: African ancestry populations have the highest burden of stroke worldwide, yet the genetic basis of stroke in these populations is obscure. The Stroke Investigative Research and Educational Network (SIREN) is a multicenter study involving 16 sites in West Africa. We conducted the first-ever genome-wide association study (GWAS) of stroke in indigenous Africans. Methods: Cases were consecutively recruited consenting adults (aged > 18 years) with neuroimaging-confirmed ischemic stroke. Stroke-free controls were ascertained using a locally validated Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-Free Status. DNA genotyping with the H3Africa array was performed, and following initial quality control, GWAS datasets were imputed into the NIH Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) release2 from BioData Catalyst. Furthermore, we performed fine-mapping, trans-ethnic meta-analysis, and in silico functional characterization to identify likely causal variants with a functional interpretation. Results: We observed genome-wide significant (P-value < 5.0E−8) SNPs associations near AADACL2 and miRNA (MIR5186) genes in chromosome 3 after adjusting for hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and cardiac status in the base model as covariates. SNPs near the miRNA (MIR4458) gene in chromosome 5 were also associated with stroke (P-value < 1.0E−6). The putative genes near AADACL2, MIR5186, and MIR4458 genes were protective and novel. SNPs associations with stroke in chromosome 2 were more than 77 kb from the closest gene LINC01854 and SNPs in chromosome 7 were more than 116 kb to the closest gene LINC01446 (P-value < 1.0E−6). In addition, we observed SNPs in genes STXBP5-AS1 (chromosome 6), GALTN9 (chromosome 12), FANCA (chromosome 16), and DLGAP1 (chromosome 18) (P-value < 1.0E−6). Both genomic regions near genes AADACL2 and MIR4458 remained significant following fine mapping. Conclusions: Our findings identify potential roles of regulatory miRNA, intergenic non-coding DNA, and intronic non-coding RNA in the biology of ischemic stroke. These findings reveal new molecular targets that promise to help close the current gaps in accurate African ancestry-based genetic stroke’s risk prediction and development of new targeted interventions to prevent or treat stroke

Barriers to and determinants of the use of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy in Cross River State, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Malaria in pregnancy (MIP) has serious consequences for the woman, unborn child and newborn. The use of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine for the intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (SP-IPTp) is low in malaria endemic areas, including some regions of Nigeria. However, little is known about pregnant women’s compliance with the SP-IPTp national guidelines in primary health care (PHC) facilities in the south-south region of Nigeria. The aim of this study was to identify the barriers to and determinants of the use of SP-IPTp among pregnant women attending ANC in PHC facilities in Cross River State, south-south region of Nigeria. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2011 among 400 ANC attendees aged 15–49 years recruited through multistage sampling. Binary logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated with the use of SP-IPTp in the study population. RESULTS: Use of SP-IPTp was self-reported by 41 % of the total respondents. Lack of autonomy in the households to receive sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) during ANC was the main barrier to use of IPTp (83 %). Other barriers were stock-outs of free SP (33 %) and poor supervision of SP ingestion by directly observed treatment among those who obtained SP from ANC clinics (36/110 = 33 %). In the multivariate logistic regression, the odds of using SP-IPTp was increased by the knowledge of the use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) (OR = 2.13, 95 % CI: 1.70–3.73) and SP (OR = 22.13, 95 % CI: 8.10–43.20) for the prevention of MIP. Use of ITNs also increased the odds of using SP-IPTp (OR = 2.38, 95 % CI: 1.24–12.31). CONCLUSIONS: Use of SP-IPTp was low and was associated with knowledge of the use of ITNs and SP as well as the use of ITNs for the prevention of MIP. There is a need to strengthen PHC systems and address barriers to the usage of SP-IPTp in order to reduce the burden of MIP. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-0883-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke — the second leading cause of death worldwide — were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry1,2. Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87% of the primary stroke risk loci and 60% of the secondary stroke risk loci were replicated (P < 0.05). Effect sizes were highly correlated across ancestries. Cross-ancestry fine-mapping, in silico mutagenesis analysis3, and transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association analyses revealed putative causal genes (such as SH3PXD2A and FURIN) and variants (such as at GRK5 and NOS3). Using a three-pronged approach4, we provide genetic evidence for putative drug effects, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as possible targets, with drugs already under investigation for stroke for F11 and PROC. A polygenic score integrating cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific stroke GWASs with vascular-risk factor GWASs (integrative polygenic scores) strongly predicted ischaemic stroke in populations of European, East Asian and African ancestry5. Stroke genetic risk scores were predictive of ischaemic stroke independent of clinical risk factors in 52,600 clinical-trial participants with cardiometabolic disease. Our results provide insights to inform biology, reveal potential drug targets and derive genetic risk prediction tools across ancestries