Schistosomiasis and Urinary Bladder Cancer in North Western Tanzania: A Retrospective Review of 185 Patients.

Worldwide, cancers of the urinary bladder are well known to be associated with environmental chemical carcinogens such as smoking and occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These cancers are typically transitional cell carcinoma (urothelial carcinoma). In areas where schistosomiasis is endemic there is a high incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Schistosomiasis causes chronic granulomatous cystitis leading to squamous metaplasia of transitional epithelium, and subsequently development of squamous cell carcinoma. The western part of Tanzania on the shores of Lake Victoria is such an endemic area. This study was done to document the burden of urinary bladder cancer associated with schistosomiasis in this region. This was a descriptive retrospective study of histologically confirmed cases of urinary bladder cancer seen at the Department of Pathology Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) over a period of 10 years. Data were retrieved from the records of the Departments of Pathology, Medical Records and Surgery. Data were analyzed by the use of contingency tables. A total of 185 patients were diagnosed with cancer of the urinary bladder during the study period, where as 90 (48.6%) were males and 95 (51.4) were females. The mean age at diagnosis was 54.3 years. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most frequent histological type (55.1%), followed by conventional transitional cell carcinoma (40.5%). Eighty three of all cancer cases (44.9%) were found to have schistosomal eggs. Schistosomiasis was commonly associated with squamous cancers compared to non squamous cancers. Most of the cancers associated with schistosomiasis had invaded the muscularis propria of the urinary bladder at the time of diagnosis (p<0.001) and such cancers were frequent below 50 years of age with a significant statistical difference (p<0.001). Poorly differentiated tumors were more frequent in females than males with a significant statistical difference (p=0.006). The majority of urinary bladder cancers seen in the Lake Region were squamous cell carcinoma associated with schistosomiasis. These cancers showed an aggressive behavior and were commonly seen in the younger age groups. Effective control of schistosomiasis in this region should significantly reduce the burden of urinary bladder cancer

Muscle invasive bladder cancer in Upper Egypt: the shift in risk factors and tumor characteristics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Egypt, where bilharziasis is endemic, bladder cancer is the commonest cancer in males and the 2^ndin females; squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the commonest type found, with a peculiar mode of presentation. The aim of this study is to identify and rank the risk factors of muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) in Upper Egypt and describe its specific criteria of presentation and histopathology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is an analytical, hospital based, case controlled study conducted in south Egypt cancer institute through comparing MIBC cases (n = 130) with age, sex and residence matched controls (n = 260) for the presence of risk factors of MIBC. Data was collected by personal interview using a well designed questionnaire. Patients' records were reviewed for histopathology and Radiologic findings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The risk factors of MIBC were positive family history [Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 7.7], exposure to pesticides [AOR = 6.2], bladder stones [AOR = 5], consanguinity [AOR = 3.9], recurrent cystitis [AOR = 3.1], bilharziasis [odds ratio (OR) = 5.8] and smoking [OR = 5.3]. SCC represented 67.6% of cases with burning micturition being the presenting symptom in 73.8%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MIBC in Upper Egypt is usually of the SCC type (although its percentage is decreasing), occurs at a younger age and presents with burning micturition rather than hematuria. Unlike the common belief, positive family history, parents' consanguinity, exposure to pesticides and chronic cystitis seem to play now more important roles than bilharziasis and smoking in the development of this disease in this area.</p

STANDARIZED ECONOMICAL STUDY OF EGYPTIAN OILS AND FATS DEMAND FACTORS

Recent data shows a declining performance in Egyptian foreign trade of agricultural sector especially by increased the Egyptian agricultural import, which leads to increase the deficit of agricultural trade balance. Agricultural processed proucts is consider one of main source of agricultural trade balance deficit. As a result, it is necessary to study the main factors affecting the Egyptian demand of foreign agricultura processed products to determine the most important factors and determine the possible solution in future. It is clear through the research resealt of the factors affecting the quantity of the Egyptian fats and oil imports, that their main factors are determined by the total production of the Egyptian fats and oil, the imports price and the consumption of oils and fats and in the total exports of USA from oil and fats. Moreover, it is obvious from the factors affecting the demand in Egyptian market that the price of the USA fats and oil is considered the main factor in most of these markets. Moreover the effect of free trade agreement and European Egyptian agreement were significant positive for increase the Egyptian demand of foreign oils and fats. So it is important to use some possible solution for decreasing these positive impact of these fators on Egyptian demand for foreign oils and fats for developing countries without being against the activation of these agreements. It is important to control the national consumption and increase the total production of oil and fats

New insights on ill-thriftiness in early-weaned buffalo calves

Aim: The present study was designed to: (1) Investigate the effect of weaning time on various metabolic indices and growth pattern in buffalo calves compared to cow calves under field condition and (2) Shed light on the potential relationship between early weaning, growth metabolites, and suboptimal growth (ill-thrift) in buffalo calves. Materials and Methods: A total number of 18 neonatal calves of both sexes and species (cattle and buffalo) were included in the study. Animals were divided into three groups according to their age at weaning as following: Cow calves (n=8) weaned at 4.5 months, buffalo calves (n=6) weaned at 3.5 months (early-weaned), and buffalo calves (n=4) weaned at 5.5 months (late-weaned). Morphological traits, growth metabolites, and hormonal profile were measured at monthly interval over the period of the study and around the time of weaning (2 weeks pre- and post-weaning). Results: The obtained results showed that the trend of growth pattern was significantly increased in a linear pattern in cow calves and late-weaned buffalo calves, whereas early-weaned buffalo calves showed sharp decline in their body weight (BW) post-weaning. By the end of the study, early-weaned buffalo calves showed the lowest BW gain (ill-thrift). There is a positive association between the morphological traits and various growth metabolites and hormonal indices. A significant decrease (p<0.05) in the concentrations of growth hormones (insulin-like growth factor-1 [IGF-1] and insulin) and other metabolites were reported in early-weaned buffalo calves compared to other animals. There is no association between stress indices (cortisol level and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio) and growth rate. Conclusion: Suboptimal growth rate (ill-thriftiness) is common in early-weaned buffalo calves and is attributed to low blood levels of growth metabolites, in particularly, IGF-1. In addition, the strong positive associations between concentrations of IGF-1 and morphological characters of growth suggest that IGF-1 is a reliable indicator for assessing metabolic status of individual calves

Validity of the distance between mitral leaflets coaptation point and annular plane in differentiation between ischemic and dilated cardiomyopathy

Background: Identification of patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) from those with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is important therapeutically and prognostically. Objective: To assess the validity of the distance between the mitral leaflets coaptation point and the mitral annular plane (CPMA) at low dose dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) for differentiation between ICM and DCM. Patients and methods: Echocardiographic indices and CPMA were measured at baseline and during dobutamine infusion for 50 patients who were presenting with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (EF). Patients were divided into two groups depending on coronary angiographic findings, group I (ICM with significant coronary artery disease) and group II (DCM with normal coronary arteries). Results: Compared with baseline values, the CPMA at low dose DSE decreased significantly in ICM patients (11.8 ± 2.2 vs 8 ± 1.2 mm, P  0.05). At low dose DSE ICM group showed a high statistically significant negative correlation between CPMA and both EF (r = −0.749, P < 0.0001) and viability index (r = −0.782, P < 0.0001) and significant positive correlation with WMSI (r = 0.79, P < 0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) CPMA cut-off value ⩽ 9 mm at low dose DSE, had sensitivity of 76.92%, specificity of 85.71% in detecting patients with ICM. Conclusion: Measurement of CPMA at low dose DSE might help in identifying patients with ICM from those with DCM