Pathological sub-types, risk factors and outcome of stroke at the Nairobi hospital, Kenya

Background: Stroke is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality the world over. Established risk factors such as arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking, hyper-lipidaemia, micro-vascular rupture, male gender, age and observed co-morbities such as sickle cell disease, HIV/AIDS infection and cerebral malaria are increasingly being encountered in the tropics. Objectives: To determine pathological sub-types, risk factors, in-hospital period prevalence and in-hospital outcome of stroke. Design: Hospital-based retrospective study. Setting: The Nairobi Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Subjects: Patients with recorded diagnosis of stroke/cerebral vascular accident; as per WHO criteria for diagnosis of stroke, all gender and age ≥ 18 years were studied. Results: A total of 2629 patients were admitted to the division of medicine at the hospital during study period. Eighty patients had diagnosis of stroke; giving an in-hospital period prevalence of 3042/100,000. Mean age was 61.3 years, mode; 63 years, range 34-95 years. Males were 43 (53.8%), M to F ratio 1.2:1 stroke sub-types: Ischaemic stroke 68(85%), haemorrhagic stroke seven (8.8%). In five patients (6.3%) no evidence of stroke sub-type was on-record. Established risk factors for stroke included hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Hypertension was found in 64 patients (80%) and diabetes-mellitus in 27(33.7%). Twenty three patients (28.8%) had both hypertension and diabetes-mellitus. Co-morbidities were observed and included mitral-stenosis, cardiac-arrhythmias cardio-myopathy, HIV/AIDS, Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH), infective endocarditis, atrial septal aneurysm, carotid plaques with or without stenosis and hyper-homocystenemia. Mean hospital stay was 12.5 days; range 22-70 days. Seventy five patients (93.8%) were discharged and four (5%) died in hospital. All patients who died had anterior circulation ischaemic stroke as per Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) classification. Conclusion: Ischaemic stroke is the most common pathological sub-type observed in this study. Hypertension is the leading observed risk factor for stroke. Hospital period prevalence for stroke of 3042/100,000 was f

The association between asymptomatic and mild neurocognitive impairment and adherence to antiretroviral therapy among people living with human immunodeficiency virus

Background: Asymptomatic cognitive impairment in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients has recently been recognised as part of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. This has been implicated as one of the causes of poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Objective: To assess the association between neurocognitive impairment (asymptomatic and mild forms) and adherence to ART. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey involving 218 participants consecutively sampled from those attending the HIV treatment clinic at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. Data collected included quantitative primary data on pre-defined baseline characteristics, neurocognitive assessment by Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) tool (Appendix 1), instrumental activities of daily living by Lawton score and objective and subjective adherence measures by medication possession ratio (MPR) and simplified medication adherence questionnaire (SMAQ) (see Appendix 2). Univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted to determine the strengths of association between predictor and the outcome variables. Results: Among the 218 participants in the study, a total of 69% had asymptomatic to mild neurocognitive impairment as assessed by the MoCA tool, while a total of 66% were determined as being adherent to ART by objective measures (by MPR) compared to subjective rates of 77% as assessed by SMAQ. However, no statistically significant association was observed between the presence of asymptomatic or mild neurocognitive impairment and likelihood of adherence to ART (p \u3e 0.05). Conclusion: Even though asymptomatic and mild forms of cognitive impairment are prevalent in the population studied, there was no significant association between cognitive impairment and adherence to treatment

Heidenhain Variant of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: First Reported Case from East Africa

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is a rare prion disease that causes rapidly progressive fatal neurodegeneration. The rarer Heidenhain variant of sCJD presents with visual symptoms and is rarely reported in the literature from sub-Saharan Africa. We report the case of a 57-year-old male with a three-week history of losing direction when driving home and visual hallucinations described as seeing rainbows. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed unilateral parieto-occipital sulcal hyperintensities with restriction on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and electroencephalography (EEG) showed right para-central slowing leading to an initial diagnosis of non-convulsive status epilepticus. He was treated with anti-epileptic medication but was re-admitted less than a month later with worsening spatial memory, aggression, ataxia, dysarthria, myoclonic jerks and a positive startle response, later developing generalised tonic-clonic seizures. Repeat MRI brain scan showed widespread posterior-predominant sulcal DWI restriction in a cortical ribboning pattern pathognomonic for sCJD. EEG showed diffuse slowing, and cerebrospinal fluid was analyzed for abnormal prion protein using real-time quaking-induced conversion but was inconclusive due to suboptimal sample collection. The patient fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for probable sCJD, Heidenhain variant; the family declined brain biopsy for definitive diagnosis. He was subsequently palliated at a local hospice where he died approximately three months after the onset of symptoms. Our case highlights the presence of a rare form of sCJD, and the diagnostic challenges faced in our resource-limited setting

Multiple sclerosis in Kenya: Demographic and clinical characteristics of a registry cohort

Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the leading cause of non-traumatic neurological disability in young adults. There is limited literature regarding the burden of MS in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Objective: To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with MS (PwMS) presenting to a tertiary referral hospital in Nairobi. Methods: We conducted a retrospective descriptive study for PwMS presenting to Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi from 2008–2018. Results: 99 cases met the diagnostic criteria for MS with a male to female ratio of 1:4. Majority (68.7%) of PwMS were indigenous Africans with a mean age of onset of 30.7 years. Mean duration from symptom onset to first neuro-imaging was 5.04 years. Only 33% of patients had sensory symptoms at onset whereas 54.5% had vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency. Majority (79.5%) had relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) and 56.6% were initiated on disease modifying therapy (DMT). Only 21.2% of patients on DMT were non-compliant. Patients with RRMS were more likely to be initiated on DMT at our hospital (p \u3c 0.001). Conclusion: Clinical characteristics of these patients largely resemble those of other SSA cohorts and African American patients. There was a delay between symptom onset and neuroimaging. There were also issues with DMT compliance

Study of cardiac autonomic function in drug-naive, newly diagnosed epilepsy patients

Background: Epilepsy is associated with ictal autonomic dysfunction which may extend into the inter-ictal period. Antiepileptic drugs have often been blamed for cardiac autonomic dysfunction in epilepsy patients. In this study we have investigated cardiac autonomic parameters in order to evaluate autonomic functions of drug-naive epilepsy patients. METHOD: Twenty drug-naive patients (15 males and 5 females) with epilepsy, and an equal number of age and gender matched controls, were evaluated for short-term resting heart rate variability and conventional cardiovascular autonomic measurements. Results: The mean age of patients was 29.30 +/- 9.80 yrs (17-55 yrs), mean age at seizure onset was 19.70 +/- 9.15 yrs (3-40 yrs) and mean length of time since last seizure was 5.60 +/- 7.00 days (1-30 days). While there was no difference in the resting heart rate or conventional autonomic test parameters, time domain heart rate variability measurements showed a decreased percentage of R-R intervals of less than 50 ms and root mean square of R-R intervals in patients, when compared to controls. Frequency domain parameters showed a decreased total power (patients: 1,796.58 +/- 1,052.45 ms2; controls: 2,934.23 +/- 1,767.06 ms2, p = 0.008). Parameters indicative of decreased vagal tone, i.e. decreased high frequency power and increased low to high frequency ratio (patients: 1.69 +/- 0.94; controls: 1.14 +/- 0.64, p = 0.045), were observed among patients compared to controls. CONCLUSION: Subtle but definite cardiac autonomic dysfunction, especially in vagal tone, was identified in drug-naive, new-onset epilepsy patients. Seizures can cause long-term and often progressive cardiac autonomic dysfunction which may be independent of concomitant antiepileptic drugs

Infrastructural and Knowledge Barriers to Accessing Acute Stroke Care at a Regional Tertiary Facility in Kenya

The delivery of definitive acute stroke care in Africa remains low due to prehospital barriers, and these are known to be country-specific. There have been no studies on elucidating these barriers in Kenya. Objectives: We sought to identify the nature of barriers to acute stroke care for patients presenting to our hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study a tour tertiary regional referral center from August 2018 to March 2019 for patients presenting with an acute stroke. We consented participants (patients or their registered next-of-kin) to fill out a questionnaire on their journey from stroke-onset to the ward bed, and about their knowledge about stroke. Results:We recruited 103 participants. Only 25.2% arrived to hospital within 3.5 h (early arrival) of stroke onset. The significant factors causing delay were: distance from hospital, traffic, visiting another hospital first, and lack of transport vehicle. Factors significantly associated (P Conclusions: We identified a number of prehospital barriers to reaching hospital on time for definitive stroke treatment, which have implications on the structure of emergency services for stroke in our city. Our study also revealed interesting observations on the public’s understanding about stroke, calling for a tailored public awareness campaign to improve stroke knowledge

Cases of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder from the East Africa region, highlighting challenges in diagnostics and healthcare access

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an auto-immune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) associated with the IgG-antibody against aquaporin-4 (AQP4-IgG). There is little published epidemiology of NMOSD from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methods: We retrospectively collated NMOSD cases admitted to our tertiary regional neurology centre. Results: We identified 11 cases (10 female, average age 30 years). 64% (7/11) were seropositive for AQP4-IgG, measured using indirect immunofluorescence. The remaining cases could either not afford tests, or had patho-gnomonic radiological features. 57% (4/7) of seropositive cases had concurrent/recent CNS infection. All pa-tients were treated with high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP), and 36% (4/11) also had plasma exchange. Only 55% (6/11) of the patients were seen by a neurologist at presentation: they had less relapses (1.3 vs 2.4), less diagnostic delay (2.3 vs 7.4 months), and were less disabled at the end of our review period. 10 cases were immunosuppressed long-term: 60% on mycophenolate, 30% azathioprine, and one on rituximab. Conclusion: Our study is the largest case series of NMOSD from the East Africa region. Patients faced challenges of access to appropriate and affordable testing, and timely availability of a neurologist at onset, which had impacts on their functional outcomes. The majority of the seropositive cases had recent/concurrent CNS infections, suggesting triggered auto-immunity