Le tuberculome intra medullaire : une cause rare de paraparesie

Le tuberculome intra-médullaire (TIM) est une localisation de la tuberculose du système nerveux central. Nous rapportons un cas de TIM, chez un patient de 48 ans, sans antécédents particuliers, qui a consultépour un déficit moteur des 2 membres inférieurs d’installation progressive. L’examen clinque a permis d’objectiver un syndrome de compression médullaire thoracique. La découverte d’une masse intra médullaire, après les explorations neuroradiologiques (myéloscanner et IRM), nous a fait poser l’indication d’une exérèse micro-chirurgicale. Le diagnostique de TIM a été affirmé par l’examen anatomo-pathologique de la pièce opératoire. L’association d’une chimiothérapie anti-tuberculeuse au delà de 6 mois après l’exérèse chirurgicale, à permis une guérison complète après un recul de 18 mois

Illegals abortions and utero-digestives lesions: retrospective study of 12 cases in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Treichville teaching hospital (Abidjan, Cote D’ivoire)

Background: Traumatic intestinal digestive damage after abortion by endo-uterine manoeuvres are not uncommon. The purpose of this study is to describe the diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic aspects of these lesions.Methods: This is a retrospective study of 3 years on patients with a uterine lesion associated with a digestive traumatic injury during illegal abortions endo-uterine manoeuvres.Results: 12 patients with a median age of 23, 9 are included. The clinical manifestations are not specific: impairment of the general condition 33.3%; hyperthermia 83.3% (or 10 cases); digestive disorders such as diarrhoea 25%, vomiting 33.3%; abdominal pain 100%; occlusive syndrome 16.7%; acute abdominal syndrome 75%. The seat of traumatic injuries is variable. The lesions were for hail alone in 4 cases (33.3%), colon alone for 2 cases (16.7%), rectum 1 case and epiploon 2 cases. In these 3 cases, the lesions were associated, sitting on both the hail and the colon at a time. All these lesions were associated with uterine perforation of variable siege. The therapeutic management consisted of a small bowel resection with ileostomy in 5 cases or 41.7%; colon resection with colostomy 3 cases or 25%; suture lesions after beveling beiges 5 cases either 41, 7 in 2 cases, we performed haemostasis on the bleeding epiploon. Treatment of the uterine lesion was conservative 75% of the time. The evolution on the 10 patients was favorable, 83.3%. Two patients died early in the operative course after septic shock.Conclusions: The digestive lesions are a factor aggravating the prognosis of post-abortion uterine manoeuvres. Their management must be rapid and requires close collaboration between the digestive surgeon and the Gynecologist

Rapid Sampling of Molecules via Skin for Diagnostic and Forensic Applications

Skin provides an excellent portal for diagnostic monitoring of a variety of entities; however, there is a dearth of reliable methods for patient-friendly sampling of skin constituents. This study describes the use of low-frequency ultrasound as a one-step methodology for rapid sampling of molecules from the skin. Sampling was performed using a brief exposure of 20 kHz ultrasound to skin in the presence of a sampling fluid. In vitro sampling from porcine skin was performed to assess the effectiveness of the method and its ability to sample drugs and endogenous epidermal biomolecules from the skin. Dermal presence of an antifungal drug—fluconazole and an abused substance, cocaine—was assessed in rats. Ultrasonic sampling captured the native profile of various naturally occurring moisturizing factors in skin. A high sampling efficiency (79 ± 13%) of topically delivered drug was achieved. Ultrasound consistently sampled greater amounts of drug from the skin compared to tape stripping. Ultrasonic sampling also detected sustained presence of cocaine in rat skin for up to 7 days as compared to its rapid disappearance from the urine. Ultrasonic sampling provides significant advantages including enhanced sampling from deeper layers of skin and high temporal sampling sensitivity

Increased circulation time of Plasmodium falciparum underlies persistent asymptomatic infection in the dry season

The dry season is a major challenge for Plasmodium falciparum parasites in many malaria endemic regions, where water availability limits mosquito vectors to only part of the year. How P. falciparum bridges two transmission seasons months apart, without being cleared by the human host or compromising host survival, is poorly understood. Here we show that low levels of P. falciparum parasites persist in the blood of asymptomatic Malian individuals during the 5- to 6-month dry season, rarely causing symptoms and minimally affecting the host immune response. Parasites isolated during the dry season are transcriptionally distinct from those of individuals with febrile malaria in the transmission season, coinciding with longer circulation within each replicative cycle of parasitized erythrocytes without adhering to the vascular endothelium. Low parasite levels during the dry season are not due to impaired replication but rather to increased splenic clearance of longer-circulating infected erythrocytes, which likely maintain parasitemias below clinical and immunological radar. We propose that P. falciparum virulence in areas of seasonal malaria transmission is regulated so that the parasite decreases its endothelial binding capacity, allowing increased splenic clearance and enabling several months of subclinical parasite persistence

Identified main fire hotspots and seasons in Côte d’Ivoire (West Africa) using MODIS fire data

Biomass burning has become more frequent and widespread worldwide, with a significant proportion occurring in tropical Africa. Fire dynamics have been generally studied at global or regional scales. At local scale, however, fire impacts can be severe or catastrophic, suggesting local analyses are warranted. This study aimed to characterise the spatio-temporal variations of vegetation fires and identify the main fire hotspots in Côte d’Ivoire, a country of West Africa, one of the world’s burn centres. Using MODIS-derived fire data over a 10-year period (2007–2016), the number of fire days, active fires and fire density were assessed across the entire country. In the southern part dominated by forests, fire activity was low. Three main fire hotspots were identified between 2°30’–8°30’W and 7°00’–10°30’N in the North-West, North-East and Central areas all dominated by savannas. In these areas, Bafing, Bounkani and Hambol regions recorded the highest fire activity where fire density was 0.4±0.02, 0.28±0.02 and 0.18±0.01 fires/km²/year, respectively. At national scale, the annual fire period stretched from October to April with 91% of fires occurring between December and February, with a peak in January. Over the decade, there was a decreasing trend of fire activity. Fire density also was negatively correlated with rainfall >1000 mm for the synchronic analysis, whereas fire density was positively correlated with rainfall in the previous years. Results suggest that the positive relationship between the previous year’s rainfall and fire activity could operate on a cycle from 1 to 4 years. Significance: Three fire hotspots were found primarily in savanna vegetation, which burns more regularly than forestdominated vegetation. The fire season occurs over 7 months, the majority of active fires (91%) occurring in just 3 months (December-January-February) with a peak in January (39%). Fire activity has declined over the past decade with a return time of above-average fires from 1 to 4 years. Fire density is positively correlated to the amount of rainfall in preceding years, whereas fire density and rainfall of the same year were negatively correlated in the region of rainfall >1000 mm

Effect of two cooking procedures on phytochemical compounds, total antioxidant capacity and colour of selected frozen vegetables

The effect of boiling and steaming on content of phytochemicals (carotenoids, chlorophylls, polyphenols and ascorbic acid) all evaluated by HPLC, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) measured by means of TEAC and FRAP assays and colour (L*, a*, b*, C, H°) of three frozen vegetables (carrot, cauliflower and spinach) was evaluated. Steaming increased the content of polyphenols in all vegetables and limited the depletion of carotenoids in spinach. Accordingly, TAC remained unvaried or increased both for steamed carrot and spinach. Boiling had a more marked effect on nutritional pattern of frozen vegetables in comparison with steaming, leading to a general loss of phytochemical compounds and TAC for all vegetables. Ascorbic acid was detected only in cauliflower and decreased after both treatments. Colour of frozen vegetables was only slightly influenced by cooking, probably due to blanching pre-treatment. Slight decrements of redness (a*) for carrot in relation with loss of carotenoids and greenness (-a*) for steamed spinach, due to a significant loss of total chlorophylls, were observed. Steaming increased TAC and bioaccessibility of polyphenols in all frozen vegetables while boiling led to a general loss of carotenoids and phenolic compounds and a TAC decrease

Effect of cooking on the total antioxidant capacity and phenolic profile of some whole-meal African cereals.

BACKGROUND: At present, sorghum, fonio and millet are not placed as important commodities in the North American and European food basket, but their importance as an ingredient in multigrain and gluten-free cereal products is highlighted. Thus, the phenolic profile, evaluated by LC/MS/MS, the total phenolic content, assessed by Folin-Ciocalteu assay, and the total antioxidant capacity were measured in three African whole grains, i.e., sorghum (Sorghum bicolor ssp. bicolor), fonio (Digitaria exilis) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.), before and after a cooking procedure. RESULTS: After cooking process, soluble phenolic acids significantly increased in sorghum, whereas bound ones and anthocyanins significantly decreased. In millet, the cooking process significantly enhanced soluble phenolic acids without affecting those bound, whereas in fonio a slight but significant decrease of almost all the soluble phenolic acids was observed beside a significant increment of bound ones. Finally, cooking process negatively affected both total phenol content and total antioxidant capacity. CONCLUSION: This is one of the few reports dealing with the antioxidant compounds of these three African whole grains in which also the effect of cooking was evaluated. Data suggested that to improve their antioxidant properties specific cultivars should be selected and the cooking procedures carefully considered