Molecular Technique Utilising Sputum For Detecting Wuchereria bancrofti Infections In Malindi, Kenya

Background: Lymphatic filariasis is a tropical parasitic disease which has been identified for elimination by 2020 through mass drugs administration. There is a major problem in its diagnosis and sensitive surveillance methods for monitoring the disease elimination programs need to be sought. Objectives: To establish and evaluate the usefulness of a Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR assay employing sputum for diagnosis of Wuchereria bancrofti infections in an endemic location. Design: Community based samples collection and a molecular laboratory technologies study. Setting: Mpirani, Malindi District and Centre for Biotechnology Research and Development, Kenya Medical Research Institute. Subjects: Sputum samples were obtained from 304 willing and consenting participants, aged between 5 and 73 years resident in Mpirani, Malindi District. Results: Prevalence of W. bancrofti infection was found to be 42.8% (130/304) by PCR assay employing sputum compared with 22.0 % (67/304) and 38.8% (119/304) respectively for microfilaria counts and ICT. The sensitivity and specificity of the PCR sputum assay was 97.5 and 92.4% respectively. Predictive values were 89.2 and 98.3% for positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) respectively while accuracy was 94.4%. Conclusions: The molecular PCR assay using sputum was found to have a great potential for use in mass diagnosis and in epidemiological studies in patients with W. bancrofti infections East African Medical Journal Vol. 85 (3) 2008: pp. 118-12

Analysis of genetic diversity in Eucalyptus grandis (Hill ex Maiden) seed sources using inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) molecular markers

Eucalyptus grandis is an economically important tree species that is native to the Australian continent and its northern neighbours, where it is grown primarily for its hard wood timber and pulp for paperindustries. It is widely grown in tropical countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Angola, Ghana, and Zimbabwe. Five ISSR primers generated 41 scorable polymorphic bands which were used to analyse genetic diversity between and within the seed sources and for construction of neighbour-joining phenogram. Mean Genetic Diversity per each primer loci based on Nei (1987) statistics indicated significant genetic variation between seed sources with 26.4%, (Gst = 0.264) of the total variation attributed to differences between seed sources. The variation between populations could be due to ecological, geographical association and gene flow rates and hence they should be conserved to retain the full breadth of genetic variation of the species. Thus, ISSR-PCR technology is a reliable, rapid (high throughput) and cost effective marker system that can be used to study genetic variation and genetic relationships among E. grandis seed sources

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers in the newly discovered invasive fruit fly pest in Africa, Bactrocera invadens (Diptera: Tephritidae)

We describe the isolation and characterization of 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci from the recently discovered fruit fly pest, Bactrocera invadens. The polymorphism of these loci was tested in individual flies from two natural populations (Sri Lanka and Democratic Republic of Congo). Allele number per locus ranged from three to 15 and eight loci displayed a polymorphic information content greater than 0.5. These microsatellite loci provide useful markers for studies of population dynamics and invasion history of this pest species