Recent advances on acute paraplegia

AbstractParaplegia and spinal cord injuries are issues of major concern to the actual medicine. But recent advances have raised hopes for a better prognosis, which has always been poor or infaust since medicine was practiced. However and interestingly enough, some concepts and definitions on the occurrence have survived for millennia. Once encountered as an issue, traumatic or non-traumatic paraplegia needs a multidisciplinary approach and a careful staging of the problem. Different scales are available with Frankel's and American Spinal Injury Association most widely used as alternatives or complementary tools. The authors discuss therapeutic options with a special focus on the stem cell therapy which has seen an impressive increase on the number of trials for a successful treatment. Sourcing and yielding of stem cells are made possible through a number of techniques, with material aspirated from bone marrow or adipose tissue, which are used along with other sources of neuronal precursors such as olfactory ensheathing cells. Nevertheless, large and multicenter studies are still lacking. However, with the quality of the ongoing work and research, the optimistic attitude seems warranted. Meanwhile, other rehabilitation and medical care interventions, always at hand, need to be applied in every individual suffering from paraplegia and spinal cord injury

Screening for viral Hepatitis Bin theRoma community in Tirana, Albania

Aim:According to the previous studies conducted in Albania involving Roma communities and in general populations,the prevalence of HBV was 13% and 7%-9%,respectively.Due to this high prevalence of HBV and difficulties accessing adequate healthcare, a screening was performed in some areas where Roma populations live. The aim of this study was to assessthe prevalence of HBV in the Roma population in Albania in order to make evidence-based recommendations for increasing the awareness of the population about this disease and increase the access to the vaccination.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in threerural areas and in four urban areas in Tirana districtwith known limited population movement. OpenEpi was used to calculate the sample size.The laboratory methods used consisted ofthe immune chromatographic method, Rapid Test and ELISA.Results: 27 outof 174 specimens tested positive for HBV. The prevalence of HBsAg was 15.5% (95%CI=10.8%-21.6%).The age-related positivity ofHBsAg was 10.6% for the age-group 19-24 years,19.4% for the age 25-44 years and 11.8% for the age 45-59 years.Of the positive cases, 15were females and 12 were males. The areas with the highest positivity rate for HBsAg were Tufina(24%), Health Care Center no.8 (23.1%) andSauk (15.4%).Conclusion: A higher prevalence of HBV was found among Roma population in Tirana district compared to the general population. The age-group25-44 years, males,and people residing in Tufina area showed a higher HBsAgpositivity rate.Improvement of the sentinel surveillance,increase of the awareness about the disease, promotion of vaccination and healthy behaviour, are the recommended actions that should target the Roma populatio

Relationship of Anthropometric Measures with Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children and Adolescents

This national study was performed to establish the relationship of anthropometric measures with cardiovascular risk factors and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Albanian normal-weight children and adolescents. We examined the data of 3,548 children and adolescents (48.2% boys), aged 11-18 years, with a normal BMI (5th-84th percentile) achieved from a survey of 'Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and Prevention of Adult Non-communicable Disease'. The diagnostic criteria for MetS were classified by the International Diabetes Federation agreement. The prevalence of MetS for 10- to 13.5-year-old boys, 14- to 18-year-old boys, 10- to 13.7-year-old girls, and 14- to 18-year-old girls were 1.3, 2.4, 2.1, and 3.2%, correspondingly. After adjustment for age and sex, each item increase in BMI (within normal range) and waist circumference enhanced the odds of MetS from 5 to 68 % and from 1 to 18 %, respectively. The principal model of dyslipidemia between the participants was high triglycerides and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. This study sets off current research about the high frequency of metabolic risk factors among normal-weight individuals in the pediatric age group. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n4p14

Screening for viral Hepatitis B in the Roma community in Tirana, Albania

Aim: According to the previous studies conducted in Albania involving Roma communities and in general populations, the prevalence of HBV was 13% and 7%-9%, respectively. Due to this high prevalence of HBV and difficulties accessing adequate healthcare, a screening was performed in some areas where Roma populations live. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HBV in the Roma population in Albania in order to make evidence-based recommendations for increasing the awareness of the population about this disease and increase the access to the vaccination. Conclusion: A higher prevalence of HBV was found among Roma population in Tirana district compared to the general population. The age-group 25-44 years, males, and people residing in Tufina area showed a higher HBsAg positivity rate. Improvement of the sentinel surveillance, increase of the awareness about the disease, promotion of vaccination and healthy behaviour, are the recommended actions that should target the Roma population