Knowledge, practice and acceptability of HPV vaccine by mothers of adolescent girls in Ilorin, Nigeria

Background: Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted cause of carcinoma of the cervix. An important determinant of the success of a primary preventive strategy like HPV vaccination is the knowledge and willingness of parents to vaccinate adolescents before sexual debut. Materials and methods of study: A cross sectional descriptive survey of mothers of girls in 8 secondary schools in Ilorin was carried out from February to April 2015. Schools were selected using multi staged sampling. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed with Chi Square and ANOVA. Results: There were 470 questionnaires returned for analysis out of 600, giving a response rate of 78.3%. One hundred and sixty-one (34.3%) knew HPV to be sexually transmitted infection and 40.4% knew it was the cause of cervical cancer. While 35.1% were aware of HPV vaccine, only 1.9% had ever vaccinated their children.Less than half (44.9%) were willing to vaccinate their children. Women with good knowledge of HPV and cervical cancer were more willing to vaccinate their children than women with poor knowledge (P <0.001). Conclusion: There is poor knowledge of HPV and practice of vaccination among mothers in llorin. Willingness of mothers to vaccinate their daughters is suboptimal. Mother’s knowledge is an important determinant of HPV vaccination of adolescents

Bilateral multicystic dysplastic kidneys: Case report

Multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) is a congenital, non-heritable maldevelopment in which the renal cortex is replaced by numerous cysts of varying sizes. Typically, MCDK is a unilateral disorder in 76% of cases and bilateral in 24%. The latter is incompatible with life. We present the case of a male child with bilateral MCDK who was followed up with ultrasound scan (USS) from 22nd week of intrauterine life till death on the 19th day after delivery. Serial antenatal USS revealed oligohydramnios and both kidneys showed multiple cysts which appeared to be communicating. Postnatal USS however, revealed multiple sub-cortical thin walled cysts of varying sizes which apparently appeared to be communicating. A diagnosis of bilateral MCDK was made and was confirmed at autopsy

Regional Variation in RBM20 Causes a Highly Penetrant Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy

Background Variants in the cardiomyocyte-specific RNA splicing factor RBM20 have been linked to familial cardiomyopathy, but the causative genetic architecture and clinical consequences of this disease are incompletely defined. Methods and Results To define the genetic architecture of RBM20 cardiomyopathy, we first established a database of RBM20 variants associated with cardiomyopathy and compared these to variants observed in the general population with respect to their location in the RBM20 coding transcript. We identified 2 regions significantly enriched for cardiomyopathy-associated variants in exons 9 and 11. We then assembled a registry of 74 patients with RBM20 variants from 8 institutions across the world (44 index cases and 30 from cascade testing). This RBM20 patient registry revealed highly prevalent family history of sudden cardiac death (51%) and cardiomyopathy (72%) among index cases and a high prevalence of composite arrhythmias (including atrial fibrillation, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, implantable cardiac defibrillator discharge, and sudden cardiac arrest, 43%). Patients harboring variants in cardiomyopathy-enriched regions identified by our variant database analysis were enriched for these findings. Further, these characteristics were more prevalent in the RBM20 registry than in large cohorts of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and TTNtv cardiomyopathy and not significantly different from a cohort of patients with LMNA-associated cardiomyopathy. Conclusions Our data establish RBM20 cardiomyopathy as a highly penetrant and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. These findings underline the importance of arrhythmia surveillance and family screening in this disease and represent the first step in defining the genetic architecture of RBM20 disease causality on a population level

The first case of Brucella canis in Sweden: background, case report and recommendations from a northern European perspective

Infection with Brucella canis has been diagnosed in Sweden for the first time. It was diagnosed in a three-year-old breeding bitch with reproductive disturbances. Fifteen in-contact dogs were tested repeatedly and all of them were negative for B. canis. The source of infection could not be defined. The present article describes the case and the measures undertaken and gives a short review over B. canis. Recommendations on how to avoid the infection in non-endemic countries are given