Cardiovascular determinants of renal dysfunction among children and adolescents in South West Nigeria

Background: New evidences reveal significant association of cardiovascular risk factors to development of chronic kidney disease among children and adolescents but there is paucity of data from Africa. Objectives: We examined the association of cardiovascular risk factors to renal dysfunction among Nigerian pediatric subjects. Materials and method: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study of pediatrics aged 2 to 17 years. Blood pressure, body mass index, serum lipids and creatinine were determined. Their glomerular filtration rate was calculated using the revised Schwartz equation. Data was analyzed with SPSS 20. Test of association was by Chi square at P <0.05. Results: We studied 114 children and adolescents. There were 55 (48.2%) males and 59 (51.8%) females with mean age of 8.99±4.26 years. There were 68 (53.5%) children and 53 adolescents (46.5%). Four (3.5%) subjects had proteinuria ≥1+. Renal dysfunction (eGFR <60ml/ min/1.73m2) was found among 9 (7.9%) participants. Renal dysfunction was higher among children than adolescents (13.1% v 1.9%) (p = 0.027). The presence and clustering of risk factors were higher among subjects with renal dysfunction (p value 0.466, 95% CI 0.19-28.3). Low HDL-c (44.4%), prehypertension(22.2%) and overweight (22.2%) were the most prevalent risk factors among those with renal dysfunction. Only age demonstrated relationship to renal dysfunction in terms of mean difference (p value 0.007, 95% CI, 1.125-6.818). Conclusions: The prevalence and clustering of cardiovascular risk factors is higher among children with renal dysfunction. Age showed association  to renal dysfunction. Dyslipidemia and high body mass have propensity to influence the development of pediatric CKD. Keywords: Cardiovascular risk factors, renal dysfunction, association, pediatrics, Nigeria, Africa

Fertility and hatchability potentials of ShikaBrown® chickens and effect of body weight and age of chicken on egg quality traits in southwestern, Nigeria

The study was conducted to assess the reproductive performance and the effect of body weight and age on external egg quality  traits of ShikaBrown® (SS-98, SG-98 and SB-98) chickens. Six hundred ShikaBrown® chickens fertile eggs were sourced, incubated and 21 weeks old ShikaBrown® layers were used for studying some external egg quality traits. Data collected were  subjected to Analysis of Variance (SAS 9); Univariate was applied to test the effects of age and body weight on  external egg  quality traits of the birds; where significant differences occurred, the means were separated by Duncan Multiple Range test. The dam (SS-98) parent stock had higher fertility (95.9%) while ShikaBrown® (SB-98) commercial layers had highest hatchability (89.9%). There was significant effect of age and body weight on all the external egg quality traits (p<0.05) considered in this  study except egg shape index, which was not significantly affected (p>0.05) by body weight. The external egg quality traits  progressed with corresponding increase in the age and body weight of the ShikaBrown® (SB-98) layers. On the basis of the  recorded high values for both reproduction and egg quality traits, the ShikaBrown® parent lines and commercial layers should be made readily available to the commercial poultry farms.Keywords: Egg, Hatchability, Fertility, External quality traits, ShikaBrown® chicken genotypes (SS-98, SG-98, SB-98)