Objective: To report on the haemoglobin concentrations and prevalence of anaemia in schoolchildren in eight countries in Africa and Asia. Design: Blood samples were collected during surveys of the health of schoolchildren as a part of programmes to develop school-based health services. Setting: Rural schools in Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania and Vietnam.
Summarybackground Insufficient attention has been paid to the health problems of school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa. A questionnaire administered to schoolchildren about their ill-health has been developed to identify schools in which urinary schistosomiasis occurs. The data collected during the interviews can also be used to assess other common health problems.objectives To analyse data collected during health questionnaires in schools to assess how schoolchildren perceive their own health, and to compare the findings between three countries in sub-Saharan Africa.methods Questionnaires asking about recent health problems were administered by teachers to schoolchildren in 120 primary schools in Mozambique, 52 primary schools in Tanzania and 298 primary schools in Ghana. A total of 67 002 children aged 8-15 years took part.results Of the 10 health problems asked about in all questionnaires, the average number reported by each child was 3.9 in Ghana, 3.4 in Mozambique and 3.1 in Tanzania. The distributions of the prevalence of each condition among schools were similar and the prevalence of all conditions showed a similar ranking. For most conditions a greater percentage of girls than boys reported each health problem.conclusions Schoolchildren in Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania do not perceive themselves to be healthy. The pattern of reported health problems was similar in each country. School health questionnaires are worthy of further study and validation.
Background
The blood flow (BF) is a critical determinant of organ functionality. Its assessment in the course of routine nuclear medicine examinations, including planar scintigraphy and positron emission tomography (PET), can be relevant for the diagnosis and monitoring of various conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate a new mathematical approach developed to estimate the organ BF from dynamic imaging data and to analyze if this method can be applied independent of the used radio tracer or imaging modality. The new approach uses the early phase of time activity curves extracted from animal and human dynamic scintigraphy and PET scans. Independence of tracer characteristics was evaluated with major oxygen-dependent organs (kidneys, liver, brain) of a mouse model. The approach was also applied on renal scans with two different imaging modalities from a representative cohort of 32 human subjects and compared to reference values.
Results
The mean organ-specific BF determined in the mouse model revealed no significant differences between the administered radiotracers and all calculated values corresponded to normal values (kidneys: 1.0-1.1 ml/min, liver: 1.4–1.6 ml/min, brain: 0.2 ml/min). In the human study cohort, the renal BFs from the two performed imaging modalities showed a good correlation (r = 0.61, p = 0.001) and a small significant difference (p = 0.047) among each other and good correlations to the reference value obtained from blood sampling (r = 0.79 and r = 0.52).
Conclusions
A mathematical approach was developed to assess the organ BF solely from dynamic imaging scans without the necessity of additional measurements. Preliminary data suggests that several radiotracers might be feasible to estimate the BF in major oxygen-dependent organs.
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