Introduction:Despite the fact that an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been in clinical use for over 20 years, its use and availability in Nigeria, a West African state, is still extremely low. Hence, only few publications are available on the clinical experience with MRI from Nigeria. We set out to evaluate our initial clinical experience with a low-field-strength MRI in a Nigeria's foremost university hospital.Materials and Methods:A retrospective review of all studies, performed with an open 0.2 Tesla MAGNETOM Concerto (Siemens Medical) MRI scanner over a 5-year period (2006 - 2010) was conducted. All patients with complete records were evaluated for their clinical and demographic characteristics.Results:The records of 799 MRI studies were available. Patients’ ages ranged from 1 day to 90 years, with a mean of 40.1 years (± 20.7 SD). There were 463 (57.9%) males and 336 (42.1%) females. Over 90% of the studies were requested to evaluate brain or spine lesions. Low back pain represented the commonest (161/799, 20.7%) clinical indication for MRI. The largest number of patients was referred by physicians from surgical specialties (65.6%).Conclusion:The awareness and competence for proper use of MRI in Nigeria appears high. Low back pain is the commonest indication for MRI in our institution, and surgeons make a greater use of the facility. The provision of high-signal strength MRI may be beneficial in making a wider range of applications available to clinicians.
Suya is a street-hawked food that offers a source of the nourishing menu for its consumers. In this study, the quality and safety of street hawked ready-to-eat suya in Dutse urban was assessed. Twenty skewers of suya were sampled from four sampling points (Hakimi Street, Yelwawa, Takuradua and Mobile base) where it is mostly sold. At each sampling point, five skewers of suya were obtained randomly from the suya vendors in sterile containers that were labeled A to T. Samples were immediately taken to the laboratory where standard methods were employed for the bacteriological assay. The total viable count (TVC) showed that the sample G (1.96 × 107 CFU/g) collected from Yelwawa had the highest load while sample P (8.60 × 106 CFU/g) collected from Takuradua recorded the lowest. Bacillus spp., Staphylococcus spp., Escherichia coli and Streptococcus spp. were detected in the samples. Across the sampling points, percentage of occurrence of bacteria isolated was highest for Escherichia coli (40%) and least for Bacillus spp. (10%). It can be concluded that all the sampled suya assayed in this study recorded bacteriological contaminants. Some of the bacteria isolated in the suya samples can potentially constitute a public health issue as their presence can cause food poisoning and food-borne diseases. Therefore, it is recommended that the producers of street vended suya should follow proper food safety measures during preparation to improve the food quality as well as to reduce imminent public health crisis upon its consumption.
Stamford Journal of Microbiology, Vol.12 (1) 2022: 25-30
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