The Changing Pattern of Hospital Admission to Medical Wards : Burden of non-communicable diseases at a hospital in a developing country

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the pattern of hospital admissions and patient outcomes in medical wards at Atbara Teaching Hospital in River Nile State, Sudan. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2013 to July 2014 and included all patients admitted to medical wards at the Atbara Teaching Hospital during the study period. Morbidity and mortality data was obtained from medical records. Diseases were categorised using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding system. Results: A total of 2,614 patient records were analysed. The age group with the highest admissions was the 56‒65-year-old age group (19.4%) and the majority of patients were admitted for one week or less (86.4%). Non-communicable diseases constituted 71.8% of all cases. According to ICD classifications, patients were admitted most frequently due to infectious or parasitic diseases (19.7%), followed by diseases of the circulatory (16.4%), digestive (16.4%) and genito-urinary (13.8%) systems. The most common diseases were cardiovascular disease (16.4%), malaria (11.3%), gastritis/peptic ulcer disease (9.8%), urinary tract infections (7.2%) and diabetes mellitus (6.9%). The mortality rate was 4.7%. Conclusion: The burden of non-communicable diseases was found to exceed that of communicable diseases among patients admitted to medical wards at the Atbara Teaching Hospital

The Irrational Use of Antibiotics Among Doctors, Pharmacists and the Public in River Nile State, Sudan

Background: Inappropriate antibiotic prescription, dispensing and self-medication are alarmingly high worldwide. The problem is more so in developing countries, including Sudan, where resistance to life-saving drugs is emerging. Objective: to assess the prevalence of irrational use of antibiotics among doctors, pharmacists and the public in River Nile State (RNS), Sudan. Methodology: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted, in March 2014 through April 2014. The study population was 278 individuals, composed of 100 doctors, 78 pharmacists selected randomly from hospitals, pharmacies and health centers, besides 100 adults from the community. Three different interviewer-administered standardized pre-tested questionnaires were used for data collection. Results:antibiotic misuse is common practice among both medicals as well as the public in RNS. This was evidenced by the facts that 92% of doctors prescribed antibiotics without culture and sensitivity results, more than 93% of pharmacists dispensed antibiotics as over the counter medications and that 89% of participants used antibiotics without consulting a doctor. More than 90% of the misused antibiotics werebeta-lactams and macrolides and the most common indication for their use was cough and common cold. Conclusion: Irrational use of antibiotics is a widespread practice in RNS among all stakeholders. Therefore, health care policy makers and care providers should have antibiotic policy and clear to follow obligatory guidelines and to ensure that the public and every prescriber/dispenser conforms to that policy. Moreover, increasing awareness about the appropriate antibiotic use among all stakeholders is of paramount importance

Attention in neglect and extinction: Assessing the degree of correspondence between visual and auditory impairments using matched tasks

Claims have been made for associated degrees of impairment on both visual and auditory performance in unilateral neglect and extinction. Since this evidence is primarily based on different tests in each modality, it is difficult to properly quantify the degree of association between performance in vision and audition. The current study compares visual and auditory extinction and temporal order judgments (TOJs) in two cases with clinical visual neglect. Stimuli in both modalities were precisely matched in their temporal and spatial parameters. The results reveal a mixed pattern of association between different auditory tests and their visual counterparts. This suggests that associations between visual and auditory neglect can occur but these are neither obligatory nor pervasive. Instead, our data support models of spatial impairment in neglect and extinction that acknowledge differences in the contribution of spatial information to performance in each modality in responses to changing task demands

SCAview: an Intuitive Visual Approach to the Integrative Analysis of Clinical Data in Spinocerebellar Ataxias

With SCAview, we present a prompt and comprehensive tool that enables scientists to browse large datasets of the most common spinocerebellar ataxias intuitively and without technical effort. Basic concept is a visualization of data, with a graphical handling and filtering to select and define subgroups and their comparison. Several plot types to visualize all data points resulting from the selected attributes are provided. The underlying synthetic cohort is based on clinical data from five different European and US longitudinal multicenter cohorts in spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, 2, 3, and 6 (SCA1, 2, 3, and 6) comprising > 1400 patients with overall > 5500 visits. First, we developed a common data model to integrate the clinical, demographic, and characterizing data of each source cohort. Second, the available datasets from each cohort were mapped onto the data model. Third, we created a synthetic cohort based on the cleaned dataset. With SCAview, we demonstrate the feasibility of mapping cohort data from different sources onto a common data model. The resulting browser-based visualization tool with a thoroughly graphical handling of the data offers researchers the unique possibility to visualize relationships and distributions of clinical data, to define subgroups and to further investigate them without any technical effort. Access to SCAview can be requested via the Ataxia Global Initiative and is free of charge

Research achievements in plant resistance to insect pests of cool season food legumes

Plant resistance to at least 17 field and storage insect pests of cool season food legumes has been identified. For the most part, this resistance was located in the primary gene pools of grain legumes via conventional laboratory, greenhouse, and field screening methods. The use of analytical techniques (i.e., capillary gas chromatography) to characterize plant chemicals that mediate the host selection behavior of pest insects offers promise as a new, more rapid way to differentiate between insect-resistant and susceptible plant material. Examples of research achievements in mechanisms of resistance and host-plant resistance within the context of integrated control programs are discussed. Accelerating the development and subsequent releases of insect-resistant cultivars to pulse farmers requires more involvement from interdisciplinary teams of plant breeders, entomologists, plant pathologists, plant chemists, molecular biologists, and other scientist

Prevalence of and risk factors for hypertension among urban communities of North Sudan: Detecting a silent killer

Background: Hypertension is a common global health problem in many countries including Sudan. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for high blood pressure (BP) in River Nile State (RNS), Sudan. Materials and Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted by a house-to-house survey; all consented adults from the main four cities, Atbara, Shendi, Ed Damer, and Berber, were interviewed using standardized pretested questionnaire to record medical history, sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. BP was measured using the standardized technique. Body mass index, waist circumference, and blood glucose were also determined. Results: A total of 954 individuals were included in the study. The mean age was 39.5 ± 16.6 years and 54.3% were females. The prevalence of hypertension was 35.7% and the newly diagnosed cases were 22.4%. Increasing age, low educational level, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and central obesity were found to be risk factors for hypertension. Conclusion: Hypertension is diagnosed in more than one-third of the population living in urban communities of RNS and correlates well with features of the metabolic syndrome