Asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy in Sokoto, Nigeria

Aims/Objectives: Prior to this time there has been no study on asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. The objective of this study, therefore, was to determine the incidence and common organisms (and their sensitivity patterns) associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy among booked patients at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.Methodology: A hospital-based cross-sectional, semi-quantitative screening for asymptomatic bacteriuria was carried out at the antenatal booking clinic in randomly selected patients. Mid-stream urine specimen was collected in sterile bottle using the clean-catch technique. Microscopy, culture and sensitivity test were performed.Results: 300 women were studied and 24 clinical specimens showed significant bacteriuria on two occasions, representing an incidence of 8.0%. The incidence was highest in the mid-trimester, 9.7%; among the para 2, 11.6% and the Para 3, 12.5%. Escherichia coli constituted the commonest cultured organism, 8(33.3%). Other organisms were Klebsiella spp, 25.0%, Colliform spp, 25.0%, Proteus spp, 8.3% and Staphylococcus aureus 8.3%. On the average, the sensitivities of the organisms were: nitrofurantoin, 75%, gentamicin, 75%, ofloxacin, 66.7%, augmentin, 66.7%, nalidixic acid, 50%, cotrimoxazole, 41.7% and tetracycline, 25.0%. All the organisms were resistant to ampicillin. One of the patients developed pyelonephritis before the commencement of treatment. Cure rate after the first course of treatment was 87.5% and 100% following a second course.Conclusion: This study revealed that the incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy was 8.0% at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, which was mainly caused by Eschericha coli, Klebsiella spp and Coliform spp. These pathogens were shown to be sensitive to nitrofurantoin and gentamicin both of which are easily available and affordable. Routine screening of pregnant women for asymptomatic bacteriuria is hereby recommended.Sahel Medical Journal Vol. 9(1) 2006: 1-

SeqClone: sequential Monte Carlo based inference of tumor subclones

Abstract Background Tumor samples are heterogeneous. They consist of varying cell populations or subclones and each subclone is characterized with a distinct single nucleotide variant (SNV) profile. This explains the source of genetic heterogeneity observed in tumor sequencing data. To make precise prognosis and design effective therapy for cancer, ascertaining the subclonal composition of a tumor is of great importance. Results In this paper, we propose a state-space formulation of the feature allocation model. This model is interpreted as the blind deconvolution of the expected variant allele fractions (VAFs). VAFs are deconvolved into a binary matrix of genotypes and a matrix of genotype proportions in the samples. Specifically, we consider a sequential construction of the genotype matrix which we model by Indian buffet process (IBP). We describe an efficient sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithm, SeqClone, that jointly estimates the genotypes of subclones and their proportions in the samples. When compared to other methods for resolving tumor heterogeneity, SeqClone provides comparable and sometimes, better estimates of model parameters. By design, SeqClone conveniently handles any number of probed SNVs in the samples. In particular, we can analyze VAFs from newly probed SNVs to improve existing estimates, an attribute not present in existing solutions. Conclusions We show that the SMC algorithm for deconvolving VAFs from tumor sequencing data is a robust and promising alternative for explaining the observed genetic heterogeneity in tumor samples