Determining the rate and reasons for specimen rejection among specimens referred for HIV viral load determination through referral linkage to Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, north-central, Ethiopia,2023: Retrospective study

Background: The preanalytical phase encompasses the time between the clinician's test order to the sample being ready for analysis. Of all errors during the laboratory diagnostic process,70 % appeared in the pre-analytical phase. In clinical laboratories, it is crucial to ensure proper specimen collection and handling, which is essential to guarantee quality assessment, monitoring process standardization, improving performance, and ensuring patient safety. Despite this importance, no study has been conducted in the study area to investigate the rate and reasons for human immunodeficiency virus viral load sample rejection. Objective: To determine the rate of human immunodeficiency virus viral load sample rejection (number of preanalytical errors) documented during the preanalytical phase and articulate possible causes for specimen rejection. Material and methods: A retrospective study was conducted at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from January 1st to January 31, 2023. During the study period, 5950 samples were extracted from the human immunodeficiency virus viral load laboratory sample tracking log books, which were sent to the hospital for viral load testing between August 2021 to November 2022. The collected data were cleaned and entered into EPI data version 4.6 before transferred it to STATA version 14.0 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, and cross-tabulations were used to summarize the findings. Results: The study found that improper sample handling was common during the preanalytical phase. According to the current study, 3.6 % of the sample was rejected at pre analytical stage. The most common reasons for specimen rejection were using inappropriate containers (64.0 %) uncentrifuged specimens (20.4 %); hemolyzed specimens (7.0 %); insufficient specimen volume (6.2 %); clotted specimens (1.9 %); and specimen labeling problems (0.5 %). Conclusion: This study found that the most common preanalytical error was using an inappropriate sample collection container, followed by uncentrifuged samples, Therefore, it is recommended that mentorship programs be developed to educate staff on the preanalytical phase of laboratory testing, specifically on sample collection, storage, and transportation for HIV viral load testing. Additionally, the quality management system of laboratory processes should be strengthened to ensure accuracy and minimize errors

Peripheral blood eosinophilia in adult asthmatic patients and its association with the severity of asthma

Abstract Background Asthma is a diverse disease with various etiologic bases. Severe asthma can be associated with increased mortality, hospitalization, and decreased quality of life for asthma patients. High blood eosinophil counts were associated with severe asthma, but recent studies have failed to confirm this as a marker of severe asthma among adult asthma patients. As a result, the purpose of this study was to determine the association between the severity of asthma and high blood eosinophil count. Methodology A simple random sampling technique was used to select 291 asthmatic patients for an institution-based cross-sectional study. Socio-demographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics were collected by using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. Four milliliters of venous blood were collected from asthmatic patients for complete blood count and peripheral morphology assessment. The eosinophil count was analyzed by the Unicel DxH 800 (Beckman Coulter, Ireland) analyzer. A statistical package for social science version 20 (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. The non-parametric (Mann-Whitney U) test was used to compare the eosinophil count with different background variables. A binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the factors associated with eosinophilia. A p-value less than 0.05 in multivariable logistic regression analysis was considered statistically significant. Result In this study, the overall magnitude of eosinophilia was 19.6% (95% CI = 14.8–24.1). Being admitted to the emergency department (AOR = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.09–0.69, p = 0.007) and being female (AOR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.26–0.9, p = 0.025) were shown to have a statistically significant association with eosinophilia. Moreover, the absolute eosinophil count was significantly higher among asthmatic patients infected with intestinal parasitic infection (p < 0.045). Conclusion Being female and admission to the emergency department were negatively associated with eosinophilia. Lack of eosinophilia can be related to the low-T2 asthma phenotype. The absolute eosinophil counts were higher among intestinal parasite-infected patients. Therefore, different biomarkers will be considered for the proper diagnosis and management of adult asthma patients

The magnitude of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus, prediabetes, and associated factors among adults living in Debre Tabor town, northcentral Ethiopia: A community-based cross-sectional study

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a worldwide public health problem. The burden of diabetes has been continuously increasing from day to day, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. Globally, half of all cases of diabetes mellitus are undiagnosed. Diabetes mellitus can be easily handled if it is detected early. There is limited evidence on the magnitude of undiagnosed diabetics and prediabetes at the community level in Ethiopia, particularly in the study area. Objective: To assess the magnitude of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus, prediabetes, and associated factors among adults living in Debre Tabor town. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Debre Tabor town from October to December 2021. A total of 407 participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique. A pretested structural questionnaire was used to collect demographic, behavioral, and clinical data. Anthropometric measurements were taken with standardized and calibrated equipment. A fasting venous blood sample was collected for blood glucose level determination. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors. A P-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The magnitude of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and prediabetes was found to be 4.5% (95% CI: 2.9–7.4) and 14.5% (95% CI: 11.1–18.1), respectively. Older age (AOR: 6.50, 95% CI: 1.82–23.21), abnormal body mass index (AOR: 6.84, 95% CI: 1.91–24.54), systolic hypertension (AOR: 8.74, 95% CI: 2.53–30.19), and family history of diabetes mellitus (FHDM) (AOR: 12.45, 95% CI: 3.63–42.65) were significantly associated with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus. Using saturated oil (AOR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.09–3.55), having a high waist circumference (AOR: 2.16, 95% CI: 1.20–3.87), and being hypertensive (AOR: 2.26, 95% CI: 1.04–4.96) were all significantly associated with Prediabetes. Conclusion: Adults in Debre Tabor town have a high prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes. A variety of modifiable risk factors were also identified. As a result, focusing the prevention strategy on such modifiable risk factors may help to minimize the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and prediabetes as well as future disease complications