49 research outputs found
Assessment of the RIFLE criteria for the diagnosis of Acute Kidney Injury; a retrospective study in South-Western Ghana
Seroprevalence and risk factors of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C infections among pregnant women in the Asante Akim North Municipality of the Ashanti region, Ghana; a cross sectional study.
Background: Viral hepatitis is a serious public health problem
affecting billions of people globally with maternal-fetal transmission
on the rise. Objectives: This study sought to determine the prevalence
and factors associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C
virus (HCV) infections among pregnant women in the Asante Akim North
Municipality, in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Methods: In this
cross-sectional study 168 pregnant women were recruited from the Agogo
Presbyterian hospital. Blood samples were collected for the detection
of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV antibodies. A
pretested questionnaire was used to obtain demographic data and
identify the risk factors associated with the two infections. Results:
Of the 168 participants studied, 16 (9.5%) tested positive for HBV and
13 (7.7%) tested positive for HCV representing 9.5% and 7.7%
respectively. A participant tested positive for both HBV and HCV
co-infection representing 0.6%. Undertaking blood transfusion,
tattooing and sharing of needles were associated with hepatitis C
infection (P=0.001). HBV was not associated with any of the risk
factors (P>0.05). Conclusion: Our findings suggest a high prevalence
of hepatitis B and hepatitis C among pregnant women; blood transfusion,
tattooing and sharing of hypodermic needles were associated with
hepatitis C nfection. Measures to reduce the disease and transmission
burden must be introduced
Chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients: Comparison of KDIGO and KDOQI guidelines
Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD), has become a public health concern as it has been reported to cause adverse outcomes such as kidney failure and premature death. This cross sectional study compared the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) and Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines in assessing the prevalence of CKD in Type 2 diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patients.Methods: We consecutively sampled a cross-section of 202 T2DM patients from the Ho municipality in the Volta region (Ghana). Structured pre-tested questionnaires were administered to obtain information on gender, age, body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, medication used, duration on medication, and duration of diabetes. Serum creatinine and urine protein were estimated using standard protocols and CKD was classified according to KDIGO and KDOQI guidelines.Results: The prevalence of CKD was 63.4% and 58.4% using the KDIGO and KDOQI guidelines respectively. The prevalence of mildly decreased renal function or worse (eGFR < 60/ml/min/1.73 m2) was 10.4% for KDIGO guideline and 7.9% for KDOQI guidelines with an excellent agreement between both definitions showing bias = -0.129, 95%CI = (-0.17 to -0.08) on Bland-Altman analysis. Participants older than 70 years were more likely to have CKD when KDIGO criteria was used (P = 0.018). The prevalence of albuminuria was 47.0% with 21.9% presenting with 1+ and 2+ grades.Conclusion: KDIGO guideline estimates higher prevalence of CKD than KDOQI guidelines in the same study population. KDIGO guideline might help in early detection and proper classification of CKD which will illicit stage-specific treatment.Keywords: Type 2 diabetes mellitus, Chronic kidney disease, Estimated glomerular filtration rate, Albuminuri
Diversity of cervicovaginal human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes and naturally occurring E6/E7 DNA polymorphisms of HPV-16 in Ghana
Human papillomavirus (HPV) E6 and E7 oncogene expression is essential for cervical carcinogenesis. Evidence exists that E6/E7 variants may have different transforming activities while the risk of HPV-16 variants(A/D) differs by race/ethnicity. We determined the type-specific diversity of HPV infection in women with high grade cervical disease or cervical cancer in Ghana and investigated naturally occurring E6/E7 DNA variants in this population. HPV genotyping was carried out on 207 cervical swab samples collected from women referred to a gynaecology clinic at two teaching hospitals in Ghana. HPV-16, HPV-18 and HPV-45 were detected in 41.9%, 23.3% and 16.3% of cases respectively. HPV-16 E6/E7 DNA sequencing was performed in 36 samples. Thirty samples contained E6/E7 variants of the HPV-16-B/C lineage. 21/36 samples were of the HPV-16C1 sublineage variant and all contained the E7 A647G(N29S) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). This study reveals the diversity of E6/E7 DNA and the dominance of HPV16 B/C variants in cervicovaginal HPV infection in Ghana. Type-specific HPV diversity analysis indicates that most Ghanaian cervical disease cases are vaccine preventable. The study provides an important baseline from which for the impact of vaccine and antivirals on clinically relevant HPV infection and associated disease can be measured
Single nucleotide polymorphisms in LCAT may contribute to dyslipidaemia in HIV-infected individuals on HAART in a Ghanaian population
© 2020, The Author(s). Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is known to cause lipid abnormalities such as dyslipidaemia in HIV-infected individuals. Yet, dyslipidaemia may not independently occur as it may be worsened by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL). This case–control study was conducted in three-selected hospitals in the Northern part of Ghana. The study constituted a total of 118 HIV-infected participants aged 19–71 years, who had been on HAART for 6–24 months. Dyslipidaemia was defined based on the NCEP-ATP III criteria. HIV-infected individuals on HAART with dyslipidaemia were classified as cases while those without dyslipidaemia were grouped as controls. Lipid profile was measured using an automatic clinical chemistry analyzer and genomic DNA was extracted for PCR (GeneAmp PCR System 2700). Overall, the prevalence of dyslipidaemia was 39.0% (46/118). High levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), and reduced levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were observed in all cases. A total of 256 selected PCR amplicons comprising 137 LPL (exons 3, 5 and 6) and 119 LCAT (exons 1, 4, and 6) were sequenced in 46 samples (Inqaba Biotech). Six (6) clinically significant SNPs were identified in exons 1 and 4 for LCAT whereas 25 non-clinically significant SNPs were identified for LPL in exons 5 and 6. At position 97 for LCAT exon 1, there was a deletion of the nucleotide, ‘A’ in 32.5% (13/40) of the sampled population while 67.5% (27/40) of the sample population retained the nucleotide, ‘A’ which was significantly associated with dyslipidaemic outcomes in the study population (p = 0.0004). A total of 25 SNPs were identified in exons 5 and 6 of LPL; 22 were substitutions, and 3 were insertions. However, none of the 25 SNPs identified in LPL exon 5 and 6 were statistically significant. SNPs in LCAT may independently contribute to dyslipidaemia among Ghanaian HIV-infected individuals on HAART, thus, allowing genetic and/or functional differential diagnosis of dyslipidaemia and creating an opportunity for potentially preventive options
Association between adverse pregnancy outcome and imbalance in angiogenic regulators and oxidative stress biomarkers in gestational hypertension and preeclampsia
Assessment of the RIFLE criteria for the diagnosis of Acute Kidney Injury; a retrospective study in South-Western Ghana
Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of arbovirus-infected tick cells
Ticks are important vectors of a wide variety of pathogens including protozoa,
bacteria and viruses. Many of the viruses transmitted by ticks are of medical or
veterinary importance including tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and Crimean-
Congo hemorrhagic fever virus causing disease in humans, and African swine fever
virus and Nairobi sheep disease virus affecting livestock. Although several studies
have elucidated tick antimicrobial mechanisms including cellular immune responses
such as nodulation, encapsulation and phagocytosis and humoral immune responses
such as the JAK/STAT pathway, complement-like proteins, antimicrobial peptides,
lectin like pattern-recognition molecules and lysozymes, very little is known about
the innate immune response of ticks towards viral infection. This study therefore
aimed to identify molecules that might be involved in the response of ticks to viral
infection. The hypothesis was that TBEV infection leads to changes in the expression
of immunity-related transcripts and proteins in Ixodes spp. tick cells and that at least
some of these might be antiviral. Ixodes scapularis-derived cell lines IDE8 and ISE6
were chosen since I. scapularis is currently the only tick species with a sequenced
genome and an Ixodes ricinus-derived cell line, IRE/CTVM19, was used because I.
ricinus is the natural vector of TBEV. Basic parameters required to study the
responses of tick cells to infection were determined, including levels of virus
infection, kinetics of virus replication and production, formation of replication
complexes and uptake of dsRNA or siRNA. The cell lines IDE8, ISE6 and
IRE/CTVM19 were infected with either of two tick-borne flaviviruses, TBEV and
Langat virus (LGTV), or with the mosquito-borne alphavirus Semliki Forest virus
(SFV). Infection was characterised using techniques including plaque assay,
luciferase assay, immunostaining and conventional, confocal and electron
microscopy. Two time points for transcriptomics and proteomics analysis of TBEVinfected
IDE8 and IRE/CTVM19 cells were selected: day 2 post-infection (p.i.) when
virus production was increasing and day 6 p.i. when virus production was decreasing.
RNA and protein were isolated from TBEV-infected and mock-infected tick cells at
days 2 and 6 p.i. and RNA-Seq and mass spectrometric technologies were used to
identify changes in, respectively, transcript and protein abundance. Differential
expression of transcripts was determined using the data analysis package DESeq
resulting in a total of 43 statistically significantly differentially expressed transcripts
in IDE8 cells and 83 in IRE/CTVM19 cells, while differential protein representation
using Χ2 test statistics with Bonferroni correction in IDEG6 software resulted in 76
differentially represented proteins in IDE8 cells and 129 in IRE/CTVM19 cells.
These included transcripts and proteins which could affect stages of the virus
infection, including virus entry, replication, maturation and protein trafficking, and
also innate immune responses such as phagocytosis, RNA interference (RNAi), the
complement system, the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, cell stress and the
endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. After verification of sequencing data by
qRT-PCR, the ability of several of the identified transcripts or proteins to affect virus
infection was determined by knockdown experiments in IDE8 and IRE/CTVM19
cells using wild type LGTV, LGTV replicons or TBEV replicons. Knockdown of
genes encoding proteins including the ER chaperone gp96 and the heat-shock protein
HSP90 resulted in increased virus production in both cell lines, hinting at an antiviral
role. In contrast, knockdown of calreticulin, another ER chaperone, resulted in a
decrease in virus production in IRE/CTVM19 cells but not in IDE8 cells, implying a
requirement for virus production. This functional genomics approach has identified
possible novel genes/proteins involved in the interaction between flaviviruses and
tick cells and also revealed that there might be antiviral innate immune pathways
present in ticks additional to the exogenous RNAi pathway
Clinical and Laboratory Diagnosis of Buruli Ulcer Disease: A Systematic Review
Background. Buruli ulcer (BU) is a necrotizing cutaneous infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Early diagnosis is crucial to prevent morbid effects and misuse of drugs. We review developments in laboratory diagnosis of BU, discuss limitations of available diagnostic methods, and give a perspective on the potential of using aptamers as point-of-care. Methods. Information for this review was searched through PubMed, web of knowledge, and identified data up to December 2015. References from relevant articles and reports from WHO Annual Meeting of the Global Buruli Ulcer initiative were also used. Finally, 59 articles were used. Results. The main laboratory methods for BU diagnosis are microscopy, culture, PCR, and histopathology. Microscopy and PCR are used routinely for diagnosis. PCR targeting IS2404 is the gold standard for laboratory confirmation. Culture remains the only method that detects viable bacilli, used for diagnosing relapse and accrued isolates for epidemiological investigation as well as monitoring drug resistance. Laboratory confirmation is done at centers distant from endemic communities reducing confirmation to a quality assurance. Conclusions. Current efforts aimed at developing point-of-care diagnostics are saddled with major drawbacks; we, however, postulate that selection of aptamers against MU target can be used as point of care
Clinical and Laboratory Diagnosis of Buruli Ulcer Disease: A Systematic Review
Background. Buruli ulcer (BU) is a necrotizing cutaneous infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Early diagnosis is crucial to prevent morbid effects and misuse of drugs. We review developments in laboratory diagnosis of BU, discuss limitations of available diagnostic methods, and give a perspective on the potential of using aptamers as point-of-care. Methods. Information for this review was searched through PubMed, web of knowledge, and identified data up to December 2015. References from relevant articles and reports from WHO Annual Meeting of the Global Buruli Ulcer initiative were also used. Finally, 59 articles were used. Results. The main laboratory methods for BU diagnosis are microscopy, culture, PCR, and histopathology. Microscopy and PCR are used routinely for diagnosis. PCR targeting IS2404 is the gold standard for laboratory confirmation. Culture remains the only method that detects viable bacilli, used for diagnosing relapse and accrued isolates for epidemiological investigation as well as monitoring drug resistance. Laboratory confirmation is done at centers distant from endemic communities reducing confirmation to a quality assurance. Conclusions. Current efforts aimed at developing point-of-care diagnostics are saddled with major drawbacks; we, however, postulate that selection of aptamers against MU target can be used as point of care